Hyung and I are sneaking on our house’s roof, spying outside of the house.

“Hyung, I think the new neighbors are already here..” I whisper to hyung as I point to the red Chevrolet car which just on its way to park at the garage of the house that we used to ‘own’ before they came.

“I can’t believe, after so many years we’ve been playing in that house, mom sold it to someone else?!” Hyung was the most frustrated between the two of us.

Our family used to own two houses, which located next to each other. It was for convenience proposed to have two houses. Dad could have extra parking lot, extra garage, and some rooms to rent to college students. Since hyung got into college, his friends have been renting the rooms. Hyung introduced me to his friends and that’s when I learned that hyung is in a band. They used the basement for practicing and hyung even let me joined the group but more as a ‘manager.’ And as time goes by, that second house is more like our play house when we got bored. The fact that mom suddenly sell that house to a family got us surprised. Hyung has no place to practice his band performance and his friends are now living at other places far from our house. Hyung has been complaining how hard they have been through just to practice.

“Go greet the neighbors and let me prepare for the fun,” hyung was smiling evilly and I quickly ran downstairs, following hyungs’ order.

“Ah, Baekkie (that’s what my mom called me all the time). Could you please send these cookies to our neighbor? Tell them to come by for dinner,” I smiled at my mother’s request and quickly ran outside the house with a plate of chocolate cookies in my hand.

As far as I can see, the family is consists of three members: A father, a mother and a daughter. The father came by and shakes his hand with me after I handed the cookies to the mother. Both of them were thanking me for welcoming them to the neighborhood.

“Please send regards to your mother. We’ll come for dinner tonight. Thank you so much.” The mother smiled at me while holding his husband’s arm and guides him inside the house.

I was smiling widely seeing the husband and wife still being lovey-dovey after so many years of marriage. I always admire of having a family that forever loves each other. Well.. my parents are also like that. But not like this family who shows affection publicly no matter how old they are. I’m envy them.

“Thanks for the cookies.” Their daughter caught me surprised. She was holding a huge box. I couldn’t really see her face. But I replied her thanks anyway.

I quickly remembered hyung’s order. As plan, hyung asked me to bring her in front of the house.

“Do you want to meet my mother? I think she’ll be happy to see you. But I don’t know, I think she’s busy preparing food…” I wasn’t sure enough how to get her to the house.

But luckily, she agreed. She put down the boxes next to the car and tidy up her messy hair.

I was speechless looking at how beautiful she is. She might not be as fair as I am, but her long straight brunette hair with a small bang brings out her cute face. Did I mention how tall she is? She is almost the same height as I am, and I’m pretty sure I don’t consider myself as short either. She was wearing pink shorts which expressed her long slender legs. She’s really skinny. She need to eat more..

“You, hello~?” She caught me surprised. She was smiling widely seeing me captivated by her.

I completely forgot about hyung’s plan. She was already walking ahead of me to my house. “What’s your name? I’m Sooyoung.”

 I was trying to catch up with her as I replied, “I’m Baekhyun.”

“Are you still in high school?” She asked me again. “Yeah, already in the last year” I answered her shortly.

“What about you?”

“Second year of college. I’m two years older than you.” She gave a pat on my head. I guess that’s a mark on treating me like a younger brother?

We were already in front of the house when my short term memory of hyung’s plan comes back. I quickly look up and saw hyung was already tossing down a bucket of slimy green paint. I was shocked and the only quick action I could do was to push her away. But.. I was too late to even push her. Along with her, I also got wet by hyung’s prank.

“WHAT THE HECK!” We were screaming in unison.

I knew hyung was planning on something. But tossing a slimy green paint is something I didn’t know. I looked up and saw hyung was laughing loudly.

“Gosh! What’s going on?!” My mom was the most surprised one. She rushed outside the house and helped Sooyoung-noona up.

“Baekkie, what’s going on here?!” My mom screamed madly.

I was stuttering, not even a word come out. I wanted to defend hyung but I know he’s at fault at the moment.

“KYUHYUN! COME DOWN AT ONCE!”

My mom ordered me to show Sooyoung-noona to the bathroom so that she could clean herself. I gave her my shirt, my mom’s skirt and guest towel. I went upstairs to my room to wash up.

As I was already upstair, I saw hyung stopped Sooyoung-noona from entering the bathroom with a warning, “Leave your house or this kind of thing will happen again.”

While she’s still in a mess, I’m pretty sure normal girl would cry. But she replied with a smile, the same evil same hyung gave when he ordered me to greet the neighbor, “Bring it on.”

She’s one tough noona.

After I’m done cleaning, I went downstairs to help my mom preparing for dinner. That’s when I heard hyung was punished with a week of getting grounded in the house. Hyung doesn’t seem to care that much as he also help mom cleaning up the mess he did in front of the house.

The time when hyung came in the house was also the time when Sooyoung-noona finally came out of the bathroom. She ignored hyung’s presence and offered some help to my mom. Hyung’s steps were paused and his face seems to doze off for a while.

“Kyunie, wash these dishes for me please.” My mom went outside the house to reinvite Sooyoung-noona’s parents over the house.

“Kyunie? How cute. I guess you must used to be a very sweet little mama boy” Sooyoung noona got me surprised.

I quickly turned to hyung and noona’s direction. She was setting up the table while smirking at hyung.

“Outsiders aren’t allowed to call me that. And so what if I’m a mama boy. All boys have mother. It’s never wrong to treat our mom nicely” Hyung glared at her while his hands were still washing those plates.

“Nope. That’s not a problem at all. Unless if it came out from your mouth. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s from the kind Baekhyunnie. Right?” She patted my head again, smiling like a proud sister.

 “Err… do you want some cookies?” That was my only respond I could gave to her in such tense atmosphere they created.

“AAAAAAAaaaaa.. you’re so cute!” She squeezed my cheeks and patted my head like crazy. Hyung was giving me death glare at my action. I couldn’t do anything but to look down at the floor. I promised that night to shut my mouth if hyung and noona are in a conversation. I hate this kind of situation.

It was during the dinner time when we learned more about each other’s family. Sooyoung-noona’s dad is an electrical engineer while her mother is working part-time as a book translator. They moved to our neighborhood because his dad got transferred here. Sooyoung-noona is actually a student from Kyunghee University and her dream is to become a fashion designer. Since this is summer vacation, so she decided to help her parents with moving.

We also introduced our family. I saw a smirk formed on Sooyoung-noona when my mom told her that hyung was already in the forth year, studying law at Korea University.

“Good luck with that~” Sooyoung-noona’s comment made hyung’s expression changed. As soon as she noticed the atmosphere around her has turned silence, she quickly add remarks to cover up, “I mean, I heard attending law school in Korea University is really tough.. errr.. Baekkie, what about you? How’s school?”

Wait, did Sooyoung-noona just called me Baekkie? Again, I can see hyung’s annoyed face looking at Sooyoung-noona.

“School is okay. But although, this is summer break, I still have to go to extra class. They are all language classes since I’m not really good at it.” I tried to live up the atmosphere.

“You know, this boy.. I can’t believe this boy actually almost failed his English and Literature class! But last year, he went to apply for Japanese class..  I don’t understand why he took another language class when he’s obviously worst at those subjects!” My mom just humiliated me in front of the new neighbors.

“But..but.. that’s because I wanted to work in the embassy. So I need to learn more language. I’m planning to learn Mandarin too..” I tried to defend myself but got a slight knock on the head by my mom.

“It’s okay. I can help you. Japanese and English are my specialty~” Sooyoung-noona smiled at me.

When everyone was agreeing and thanking Sooyoung-noona for her willingness to help me with my school works, I saw hyung continue eating, choosing not to be bothered with the conversation between all of us.

I can obviously sense an unpleasant aura coming in the future from the two of them...