August finally came, it’s the summer holiday!

Summer was her favorite season. Her grandmom made strawberry jams to die for during the summer, it’s way better than watermelons for her. Adding to that, holiday meant she could wake up late and spend the day roaming around the cities.

Today, she planned to go visit the swimming pool. She was waiting for the bus when someone familiar greeted her.

“Chaeyoung?”

“Mina unnie???” She let her guard down during summer holiday, she wasn’t used to avoiding Mina other than school days.

“Where have you been?! I thought I told you to text me? I was going to buy you samgyeopsal, remember?” Mina pouted at her. Chaeyoung was weak, “Ah, sorry unnie I forgot.. But I saved your number, I did! Here, I will text you right away now.”

After making sure that Mina now got Chaeyoung’s number, she asked where Chaeyoung was going. Apparently, they were heading in the same direction. Mina wasn’t going to swim, but she was going to a dance studio that was located in the same complex as the swimming pool. It was then decided that Mina was going to treat Chaeyoung her deserved samgyeopsal later this evening.

Chaeyoung was finished with her swimming. Even though she liked to swim, she wasn’t going to swim for many hours just to wait for her samgyeopsal. Dehydration from too much swimming was a real thing. Chaeyoung decided to wait for Mina in front of her dance studio.

It didn’t take long for her to find the said dance studio as it was one of the most prominent part of the sport complex. She found MIna rightaway as she was occupying one of the main studio.

Through the glass on the door, she watched as Mina pirouetted beautifully to the song. It was a familiar song, she heard it in one of her Barbie series. But Mina definitely brought magical sense to the song. She could literally feel emotion and magic exuded from seeing the elegant moves that Mina so effortlessly pulled. She watched in awe and didn’t realize that her body was moving on her own, she was already opening the door to the studio and clapping her hands when the music was over.

“Amazinggg, Mina unnie! I thought you were going here to do group dance class or something, but you’re having this amazing solo performance!? For noone to watch!?” Chaeyoung talked enthusiastically in disbelief, her hands covering , “I feel like I want to watch you dance for the rest of my life.”

Mina blushed to the sudden confession, “Eh? What are you talking about..”

“No but Mina unnie seriously! Are you planning to take ballet professionally? You still can right?”

“Nope Chaeyoung, I hurt my legs one time so it would be hard for me to pursue this personally. It’s okay! I’m content with what I have now, I just miss dancing sometimes,” Mina quickly elaborated her sentence because Chaeyoung’s face screamed guilt for bringing that up.

“So you are done with the swimming?”

“Yes, unnie. If I swim for too long I will catch cold. Just continue dancing, though, I can watch you from here. I can entertain myself just fine!”

“Okay if you said so. I rented this room for another 2 hours so might as well use what my money’s worth.” Mina played another Barbie song (it’s all Barbie song for Chaeyoung-- or Disney) and Chaeyoung decided to get her watercolor travel kit out.

She was planning to sit and paint on the riverbanks of Han River, but this is even better. She started to sketch Mina who’s doing whatever dance rituals she had.

Chaeyoung was deep in her artistic world when she felt Mina tapped her shoulder. “Chaeyoung? Woah were you really in the zone just then?” she chuckled.

“Eh.. uh.. yeah unnie. I was painting you! Does this look like you?” she gave her the paper.

“Wow I don’t know.. This is too good. Did I look this pretty?”

“Of course you are.. I mean! Yes you are because as a painter I need to paint the object as pretty as possible! Pictures stay forever, you know.” Chaeyoung tried to divert the topic before this got more awkward than it already was, “So, can I redeem my samgyeopsal now?”

“Sure, let me change first.”

“Okay, let me accompany you unnie. It’s getting dark.”

“Ooh, cute. Concerned dongsaeng, aren’t you,” Mina’s eyes were twinkling and she smirked a bit. This unnie was definitely teasing her.

Mina decided to take a quick shower now that Chaeyoung was accompanying her. She admitted that she was a bit afraid about being alone in this building. After she was done, Mina gestured Chaeyoung to follow her out of the building.

Chaeyoung found out that other than ballet, Mina also did modern dance. She was in the dance club of the school in her first year, but her activities in the student body prevented her to be active in the dance club. Now she just entertained herself with occasional dance in the city’s dance studio.

Mina also discovered that Chaeyoung had liked doodling and drawing since she could remember. It was a hobby though, Chaeyoung felt drawing brought her some peace of mind. She wasn’t going to pursue drawing seriously because she couldn’t imagine one day being forced to draw just to pay the bills.

***

They arrived at the samgyeopsal restaurant that Chaeyoung has been eyeing but never got the chance to try.

“Are you sure you don’t have any recommendation, unnie?” Chaeyoung asked as they were seated.

“Nope, I don’t eat samgyeopsal often.”

“Why? You don’t like it? Oh my God, then why are you treating me this?”

“No no no please calm down, Chaeyoung-ssi,” Mina persuaded Chaeyoung to sit back down. “I like samgyeopsal but I can never grill it to the way I want the meat to be, you know? I prefer to eat a ready-to-eat menu because it saved both the food AND me.”

Chaeyoung laughed at the revelation, “Unnie! Then you just haven’t been to samgyeopsal resto with someone who knows how to cook it! You just relax, unnie, I will grill them for you.”

“And that’s how I’m getting my money’s worth,” she winked sneakily at Chaeyoung. Aish, is she normally this flirty!? Chaeyoung thought.

The meat came and the grill was hot enough. Chaeyoung carefully cut the meat pieces into the desirable size (she followed what Mina wanted because she was okay with everything) and grilled them. She grilled them to the perfect state, according to Chef Chaeyoung, and presented them to Mina.

“Eat this with lettuce and kimchi, unnie. This tastes gold!” she instructed Mina.

“Hmm! Sure this one is good!” Mina spoke with full, “You are a good cook. Look at you middle-schoolers grilling meat for me!”

Chaeyoung almost forgot that she still hid her identity to Mina, but she followed along anyway. Six months ago, Mina was like a star too far away to want anything to do with Chaeyoung. Back then, she thought she would be better off living her life without Mina, the queen bee character. She was now actually convinced that Mina wasn’t as cold as the school gossip portrayed her to be. This Mina unnie she knew was actually playful and had so much interesting stories in her. She now wanted to be her friend, or maybe something more, but Chaeyoung decided it wasn’t the right moment to reveal that truth.

“So, unnie, are you not going somewhere with your friend this summer?” Chaeyoung started the conversation while grilling the meat.

“Nope, my dad is busy with her operation schedule this month so we might have to p