"So, where to next?" Serena asked as the four left Gong Cha with drinks and snacks in hands.

School started in less than two weeks and the four went school supply shopping.

"Go back home or actually get something to eat?"

Before the trio could suggest other places to go to, the cousins heard their names being called in the distance.

"Do you hear that?" Kierra asked while looking at the trio.

They paused while trying to focus on hearing better.

"Ah, ."

Came Serena's muttered response as she tried to move out of the way upon recognizing the voice belonging to the person running towards them, especially headed in her direction. Just as the three turned around to see who it was, they witnessed Serena being glomped by another friend of theirs, Song Hyeongjun, and was unable to move out of the way in time.

"PARK JINAE!"

The pair went crashing onto the sidewalk as the trio avoided getting splashed by Serena's drink. The three refrained from laughing at the incident, but burst into a fit of laughter a second later anyway. Serena cast her sister and cousins an annoyed look.

"Song Hyeongjun." She scolded in a firm tone as her eyes fixated the younger man.

The playful look disappeared from his face as he immediately stood up.

"Oops."

Hyeongjun cast Serena with a sheepish smile as he offered a hand and she reluctantly took it with a sour face.

"Why couldn't you have done this to Chaewon, Hayoun, or Yiseul?"

"You were closer."

"Wow. You're a jerk."

"That's you."

"True. So, no more service for you at Simplistic."

"Oh, c'mon. It wasn't that bad."

"Whatever."

"Oh, hey." Another voice greeted.

"Now I know why Hyeongjun ran off just now."

The fourth person was Cha Junho, another friend of theirs.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Serena commented as she nudged Hyeongjun as he just smiled at her.

Linna noticed the bags he carried.

"Having a party or something?"

"Yeah, we are actually." Junho confirmed.

"It's just a small gathering before the new school term starts."

Hyeongjun then cast them with a bright smile.

"It'll be great to have you join us as Minhee, Dongpyo, Yohan, and the others will be there, too."

"Sorry, we can't. We got work later today." Kierra declined, making up a lie.

"No you don't." Hyeongjun called her bluff.

"Yeah, I do."

Serena intervened, staring at Hyeongjun.

"Anyway, why does it matter to you if we come or not, Hyeongjun?"

"Because you owe me cookies, Jinae."

"You're the one that owes me cookies."

"Wait, I do?"

Hyeongjun cast her with an incredulous look.

"For real? I do?"

"Mmhm."

Honestly, Serena couldn't recall what had happened that time about the cookies, but she for sure remembered that Hyeongjun was the one that owed her cookies for some odd reason or other..

"Oh, right. I do."

Hyeongjun recalled with a sheepish laugh.

"I stole your stash and never replaced them."

Hyeongjun dismissed it.

"Whatever. Forget about it. Just come. It'll be fun."

Linna and Melanie answered for them.

"We'll be there."

"Alright, cool. I'll send you the address." Junho said as he faced Serena with a small smile.

"Don't worry, Jinae. There will be others that Hyeongjun can annoy at the party."

Hyeongjun poked her cheek.

"Don't forget to bring me my cookies."

He ran away laughing with Junho following him shortly afterward as Serena rolled her eyes.

"I'ma burn those cookies."

The party was held at Hyeongjun and Junho's sharehouse with other male Hyebi University students that the quartet knew, more or less, as they didn't really run in the same social circle as their other friends, but saw them around campus. When the quartet arrived at their friends' home, they were surprised to see Seohoo when he opened the door and he to them. He flashed them a smile.

"Hey, so this is the party y'all were invited to, yeah?"

Earlier, Seohoo had invited the four out, but had turned him down as they told him that they already had plans for the night. Apparently, it turned out to be at the same place. Seohoo chuckled.

"Nice. Anyway, come inside. I'll show y'all around."

He showed them around and to quite a lot of people. It was not a small gathering at all. Serena and Kierra barely knew a fourth of the party-goers and only spoke with those they knew well compare to Melanie and Linna who were more or less on good terms with a majority of the attendees.

"I can't believe you've been hiding here the whole time." Kierra huffed as she joined Serena at the side of the house, away from the party.

Serena shot her cousin with a tired look.

"I just got away from some people asking if I was Seohoo's girlfriend due to the photos we took during Seollal."

"Oh yeah, me, too."

"Anyway, where have you been"

Kierra joined Serena on the cemented parking space and leaned against the side of the house, tiredly with a laugh. There were no other people around them and she took in the emptiness of it.

"Junho dragged me over to play some games and we saw Yohan and Dongpyo amongst the crowd. I ended up playing games with them as Junho's partner."

The two shared a laugh as Kierra continued speaking.

"Anyway, I just told Junho and Yohan, and the others I needed to use the bathroom, but now I'm here."

The pair giggled as they sat like that for a moment longer in the comforting silence.

"Let's ditch our sisters and go back home first."

This time around, Serena suggested the option with Kierra scoffing.

"Oh, so now you wanna ditch them when I wanted to ditch them last Christmas."

Serena chuckled with a nod.

"Yeah. Why not?"

"Okay, I'm down. Let's go." Kierra agreed immediately as the pair laugh while standing back on to their feet.

 The pair turned around upon hearing footsteps coming from behind them to see their sisters looking panicked.

"Hey, what's up?" Serena asked, concerned.

"Did someone do something?"

"No, no." The younger pair replied before clarifying.

"Sunghoon is here."

"Jake is here."

The older duo's face fell while Kierra's eyes widened at the realization a second later.

"Oh, . Is Jay here, too?"

Linna and Melanie nodded while Serena rolled her eyes with a good-nature smile as she mused on the idea of her sister and cousins interacting with the three guys at this party if they didn't go home.

"What if we stay?" Serena suggested as the trio protested.

"Hell no!"

Serena laughed and backed off.

"Okay, okay. Anyway, we still have to go through the front door as I already tried leaving through this way."

"Wow."

Serena let out another laugh as she glanced from one to the other.

"Anyway, let's go."

The four soon made their way back to the party. Before they could round the corner of the house, their path was unfortunately blocked by two familiar males, but were equally surprised that they were somehow friends with whoever had invited them to the party.

"Good evening, ladies."

The cousins couldn't believe that they were trying to hit on them when they already had girlfriends and had cheated on their friends.

"Sorry, bye."

The cousins tried to make their way around them, but the males blocked their path once more.

"Aww, we just wanted to chat a little longer I'm Park Jiwoong." Jiwoong said while he introduced the other.

"And this is Ahn Sunyong."

"What are your names?" Sunyong asked the quartet.

"Y'all don't need to know." Melanie answered as she and the others tried to maneuvered around the two, but were blocked again.

"How about we take this conversation somewhere else?" Jinwoong said with a grinned.

"Nah, we're good." Linna declined as she and the other three tried to leave again, and yet again were blocked.

"Oh, ladies, don't play so hard to get." Sunyong said in a tone to be smooth and charismatic.

The sisters ignored them and continued to walk around them, but the males were quite persistent and blocked their path a fifth time.

"Hey, we just wanted to talk." Jinwoong explained although his tone didn't seem friendly now.

He stared at Linna a little longer before recognition dawned on his face.

"Hey, you look like that girl from that rice ball place."

Linna flashed him a feigned shocked look as she spoke sarcastically.

"Yeah, and you look like that guy that already has a girlfriend despite hitting on me and her."

Linna motioned between her and Kierra as Jinwoong cast them with another smile.

"She's not my girlfriend, but either of you could be."

"Yeah, no thanks."

The quartet shook their heads at these two being so shameless.

"Is everything alright?" Another male voice suddenly spoke from behind the two males.

The female quartet's attention turned to look over the male quartet's shoulders to see Yohan, Dongpyo, Junho, and Hyeongjun.

"Oh, hey!" The cousins greeted them and before they could explain their situation, the other males each took each girl into one of their arms.

"Yeah, everything's fine."Jinwoong spoke with Sunyong nodding.

"Yeah, we're just having a talk with our girlfriends."

The sisters elbowed the males in the stomach hard while shaking their heads and walking towards their friends.

"We're not their girlfriends." Serena spat as Kierra nodded with a dark look.

"And totally not our style at all."

Yohan immediately stepped in.

"I suggest the four of you to leave our friends alone right now, or you'll be dealing with us instead."

The other three moved forward to back Yohan as the two males looked at one another and begrudgingly left on their own accord, grumbling. Once they were out of sight, the cousins faced their friends thankfully.

"Thanks for helping us out."

"No problem."

Soon, miscievous smile graced their faces a second later as Hyeongjun g