“Don’t even try Do Kyungsoo.” Naeun held up her left palm in protest.

“Aw come on cousin. Kai’s off with Yookyung on their date, so he can’t help me and you know how much the chicks at this school scare me.” Kyungsoo reasoned.

“Get Luhan to help you.”

“He’s busy.”

“Oh yeah, doing what?” Naeun squinted her eyes, suspicion evident in her voice.

“Basketball.”

“Luhan hates basketball.” Naeun smirked.

“Aw, you remember what he hates! You do still care.” Kyungsoo clasped his hands together and batted his eyelids at his cousin.

“You. Are. A. .”

“Eh. Get that a lot. But seriously, I need your help.”

“Fine, fine. Lead the way oh annoying one.” Naeun’s voice dripped with scorn.

“It would be my pleasure.” Kyungsoo beamed, refusing to give Naeun the satisfaction of appearing weaker than she.

Although Naeun and Kyungsoo were not biologically related, they had a typical brother-sister relationship. The first time they met was at the age of thirteen. Roughly half a year after Papa Son saved Naeun’s life. Their first encounter was awkward to say the least. Kyungsoo didn’t appreciate the fact that his grandfather’s attention had been stolen by this… this girl. He didn’t understand how she got there either. However, after about an hour of sulking, the boy gave in and asked his new ‘cousin’ to play, as their grandfather had left to brew jasmine tea. She found the situation to be rather dubious, after witnessing his previously cold reaction to her prescence, but Kyungsoo was quick to apologize. Naeun was a kind girl, so she forgave him in an instant. It was nice to have someone her age to play with anyway. At fifteen Kyungsoo learnt the truth about his ‘cousin’. He didn’t want to believe it at first but Naeun reassured him and told him that it was okay and that the suffering was over. For a month or so he was very protective of the girl, he didn’t allow just anyone near his dear cousin and Naeun was getting tired of it. She was forced to sit down and have a 'talk' with him. She described the torment to actually be a blessing in disguise. Had she not received such torture she wouldn’t have come across Papa Son. She told him that had she not been abused, she would’ve never met such a lovely cousin. She explained that she was safe, she was okay and that era of her life was over. He knew he couldn’t protect her forever but he tried his best to keep her out of harms way… from a distance. Anymore direct ‘protection’ from him and his head would’ve been knocked off within seconds. And she didn't mean the one on his neck.

♡

“So far we’ve done one, two, three… seven things on your list. That’s pretty good right?” Kai asked Yookyung.

“Yeah.” Yookyung smiled back. Kai beamed. He loved how her smiles started coming out, bigger and brighter each time. He adored how she was finally letting him in, letting him get to know the real her. Someone she wasn’t even sure existed.

“What’s left?” She asked.

“Running through a fountain of- I love how you wrote ‘of varying force’, you just had to be all technical didn’t you.” Kai winked.

“Yeah, yeah. Just read the list pretty boy.” Both were shocked at her sudden sarcastic remark. Kai was pleasantly surprised whilst Yookyung didn’t really have an opinion. She was just surprised.

“It’s working!” Kai screamed to the heavens.

“What’s working?”

“This date. Today. Everything.” He explained. Yookyung tilted her head in confusion.

“What do you mean by that?”

“The purpose of today was for you to experience freedom right?” Yookyung merely nodded.

“Well, allow me to let you in on a little secret Miss Hong. Freedom or being ‘free’” Kai signalled quotation marks around word ‘free’ with his fingers, “isn’t all about eating ice cream and doing something unexpected. It’s about being yourself. And look at you. Look how far you’ve come. You. You just spoke without holding back. You just uttered something entirely sarcastic. Just this afternoon, who was going on about how Hong Yookyung doesn’t talk sarcastically again?” He said, imitating the poor heiress. She slapped his arm.

“Hey! I don’t talk like that!”

“See you did it again! You hit me! Could you imagine the Yookyung of two months ago hitting me? I can’t. This is progress I tell you! Progress!” He cried to the heavens once more.

“Huh.” She smiled to the floor.

“I guess you’re right.” She whispered.

“Of course I am. Now come,” He jutted out his elbow, gesturing for her to link her arm through his. He grinned, as did she.

“We have three more tasks to complete.” She slipped her arm happily round his and they skipped off into the sunset. Only joking. They embarked on a perilous journey to find a street fountain.

----

Hey guys, I forgot to mention that I'm leaving on holiday in a few hours, so I might not be able to update as frequently. MIGHT. There's a slight chance that I'll update just as much :3

Am I rushing the story? I feel like I am.. but I don't know.

Disclaimer: I don't actually know if Luhan hates basketball, I made it up for the purposes of this story.