“Mom~ Do you know where my jean capris are? The ones with the buckles?”

“They should be in your drawer hun. Where I usually put them.” Ms. Park shouted.

“Alright, I’ll check again,” Mi-hee yelled back. Rushing back into her room, she adjusted her glasses and sorted through her drawers again. Jeans… jeans… jeans… oh that’s where they were!

“Thanks mom! Why is it, after I ask, it always pops up at the place I swore I checked over and over again?” Mi-hee giggled and placed it into red suitcase, securing it beside her black tights.

“It’s cause I have that magic… voice?”

“Either way, thanks a lot mommy!”

Ms. Park walked casually into her daughter’s room, glad to see her happy. “I’m really proud that you’re doing this actually,” she noted.

“Mm, why?” Mi-hee asked absentmindedly, giving her camera an once-over.

“This is really out of your comfort zone sweetie. Yet you’re going. When you come back, invite some of your new friends over, alright?”

“It’s not that big a deal mom…” Mi-hee rolled her eyes playfully. “I’m actually really worried.”

“Hmm? Talk to your mom,” Ms. Park said, sitting on her daughter’s bed. “What’s troubling you?”

“All the ‘popular’ people are on the swim team. They don’t really like me all that much.” Mi-hee sighed. “The one who scares me the most is Lee Chae-rin. Her little posse calls her CL. I bet you it stands for something really scary, like… CHLORINE! Or… er…maybe it’s their own version of ‘Counter-intelligence!’”

“Sometimes, I wonder if you’re really sixteen,” Ms. Park sighed loudly. “You’re overreacting.”

“I forgot to mention Park Bom. She is really like a ticking bomb! Bom acts all sweet, until BOOM! She had this explosion of anger at one of the students who accidentally spilled spaghetti on her new shoes! Don’t get me started on the other two-”

“Mi-hee,” Ms. Park’s voice cut through whatever her daughter was about to say next.

“You’ll be fine.”

==========================================================================================

Inside the airport, it was chaotic.

Why did the swim team HAVE to leave when Big Bang was coming back from their ALIVE Tour?!!! Mi-hee thought furiously to herself. She tried to push by the crazed fan girls, but not being seen really worked against her.

“Excuse me!” “Be careful- ouch!” “I’m sorry, could I pass by you for a moment…”

Where the heck is the check-in gates counters?! Mi-hee looked around feverishly. Yet again she found herself being swept across by the swarming fans.

“Here,” a man said, holding her shoulder firmly and guiding her through the masses.  

“Ahh, thank you so much!” Mi-hee bowed low, glad to get out of the way.

“No problem Mi-hee,” the man replied, chuckling.

How’d he know my name?! Mind-reading powers are real?!

Mi-hee looked up timidly to see Just Jonghyun’s smiling face staring at her.

“Ack! J-jonghyun!”

Jonghyun laughed again, flashing his perfectly white teeth. “I’ll take that as a thank you!”

“Uhhh…” Mi-hee looked around, flustered. “Do you know where the check-in gates are?”

Jonghyun, his grin still glued to his face, grabbed his sports bag and pointed to something right in front of them. “You mean that?”

“Er…” Mi-hee felt her face flush again. “I guess I need to get my glasses checked…” she mumbled.

“On the contrary, you should consider getting contacts. They hide your pretty face.”

Mi-hee frowned. Pretty face?! That sounds… greasy!

“What? Did I say something wrong?” Jonghyun voiced, his head cocked to the side. He looked genuinely worried as he played with his leather wrist band.

It’s kinda funny to see him squirm like that…

“N-no, y-you didn’t. W-we should check in…”

Jonghyun gracefully grabbed Mi-hee’s beaten red suitcase and advanced toward the lineup, and she followed slowly.

“There’s no need to be so tense Mi-hee.” Jonghyun said reassuringly as they got in line. “After all…”

Mi-hee froze. Does he think I’m tense because of him? Boys these days are so thick headed!

“… we’re not going to be late for our plane or anything. We’re actually early! We might have time to get a coffee or something from Café Pascucci.”

Maybe he isn’t like ‘them’ after all…

“That sounds good,” Mi-hee agreed, shouldering her carry on bag. She then realized he had been holding her luggage. “Hey…I can take care of it myself…”

“Nah, I got it, but thanks for asking,” Jonghyun said, watching the large panel of flight times and schedules.

Scratch that. He’s just downright oblivious.

Jonghyun went first, confidently talking to the female clerks who all seemed to zone in on him immediately. They batted their eyelashes and on purposely stalled, but Jonghyun, being the innocent person, went along with it.

Mi-hee watched, amused as the clerks’s faces fell when he had to exit the lineup. Stepping out, Jonghyun shouldered a small backpack and walked away. He mouthed to Mi-hee: “I’ll wait for you.”

“Thanks,” Mi-hee responded back.

“Next!" One of the clerks said, waving over the passengers.

Mi-hee stepped up to walk but someone behind her walked passed her.

I’m not going to let that happen to me again! Mi-hee vowed and marched up to the register. “I was actually ahead of you.”

“Hey! Get back in the lineup, you little troublemaker. You should know better then to budge,” the cashier said irritably.

“I was right there-”

The cashier eyed her warily. “Don’t make me call security young lady. I’ve met enough of your type. Think they know everything; well guess what, the world doesn’t work like tha-”

“She was right behind me,” Jonghyun confirmed, seeing the issue and stepped forward to place his hand on Mi-hee’s shoulder.

“Well…if you say so… I might be able to let it slide…” the cashier sighed girlishly, batting her eyelashes. And yet again, Jonghyun remained oblivious.

“Thanks,” he said with a smile.

“If I could get your passport miss, I can get started…”

Mi-hee raised her eyebrows. A few moments ago this was the same woman who called her a troublemaker. Jeez!  She reluctantly handed the clerk her passport, silently fuming.

After a few seconds the two were directed to the customs and security check and were off on their way.

“Thank you Jonghyun,” Mi-hee said sincerely, all thoughts of him being a greasy boy vanishing from her head. “I would have had to be in that lineup forever if you didn’t come.”

“No problem, that’s what friends are for, right?”

“R-right,” Mi-hee said, unused to the term ‘friends.’

“Lets go through the security check and get some coffee. I need a caffeine dose right about now.”

Mi-hee wrinkled her nose at the idea of the black drink. She didn’t like the bitter, angry taste that people called ‘coffee.’ Also, she thought that it was unnecessary to spend her hard-earned allowance on a ‘gourmet made drink’ when she could have water from the tap. “I think… I’ll pass this time.”

“Suit yourself, let’s go!” Jonghyun cheered, taking Mi-hee’s hand and whisking her through the crowd at top speed.

Mi-hee found herself giggling as the two raced childishly to the gates. She hadn’t had as much fun since… ever.

==========================================================================================

“So, what do you want? Hot chocolate? I can tell you’re not a caffeine person,” Jonghyun offered, reading the prices.

“Oh, umm… Jonghyun, you don’t need to buy anything for me. I’ll just sit down near a table and wait for you instead-”

“Nonsense. What do you want? Or I’ll buy you a coffee.”

“Then I won’t drink it.”

Jonghyun put on a sad face. “Then you would have wasted all my hard earned, back-breaking money…”

“Fine! Small hot chocolate! Small!” Mi-hee grinned at Jonghyun. “But I still bet that you don’t know anything about hard-earned cash.”

“Got me there,” he agreed. “Ahh, can I get one large Americano, two milks? And one large hot chocolate… oh, and those chocolate cakepops look great too. To go please.”

“10,000 won please.”    (A/N: Approx. $10)

Jonghyun handed him the bills and in turn the barista gave him the change. “It’ll be out in a minute.”

“Thanks. Mi-hee, why don’t you find a seat? I’ll meet you there.”

“Okay, sure.” Cake-pops… Mi-hee turned to leave, but then faced Jonghyun again. “Thanks for the drink.”

“Anytime. Actually, scratch that. Not anytime.” He wagged his finger playfully.

“Sure.” She walked away; feeling happier then she had felt in a long time. It reminded Mi-hee of the times when she and her own father used to take her to little coffee shops like this one.

-FLASHBACK-

“Which one do you want Mi-hee? Pick anything. It’s Papa’s treat.”

“Really? Anything?” A cute seven year-old Mi-hee asked incredulously. “But there’s so many! Hmm…” she gazed thoughtfully at the bakeries many delights, surprisingly mature for her tender age. “I’ll have the chocolate cake-pops.”

“Two chocolate cake-pops, small milk, and one tall soy-”

“Chai tea latte!” Mi-hee finished happily.

The barista smiled at the father/daughter duo. “Coming right up. Please take a seat and we’ll be right up with your order.”

The two instinctively walked to their ‘special’ place in Bell’s Cupcakes and Coffee. Tucked sneakily in the corner, there was a booth with plush red seats, so big that Mi-hee could sit probably lie across and still have some room to move.

“What are we going to do later daddy? I think Mommy said we’re going to the movies, but I want to be sure.”

“I think you two are going boo-bear. Papa has a little bit of work to finish off.”

-END FLASHBACK-

That memory was only a month before Ms. Park found her husband asleep with a much younger woman in their bedroom. That was when her life, and her mothers, had changed drastically.

Gone were the fancy, modern-looking apartments. Gone were the cake-pops and cute outfits. More importantly, key to their survival, gone was the money.

Mi-hee the zipper of her hoodie absentmindedly. It barely held to the spokes of the jacket. I should really fix it soon.

“Hello, earth to Mi-hee~” Jonghyun said, waving his hands in front of Mi-hee. “Do you usually zone out like that?”

“Huh?” she snapped back to reality, flushed. To calm herself, she took a sip of hot chocolate and felt the warm liquid pool within her stomach comfortingly. “Sorry.”

Jonghyun shrugged. “No big deal. Except you were like that for twenty minutes. Kinda creepy.” He smiled to show he was joking.

“I’m sorry,” Mi-hee echoed.

“Stop saying sorry, I said it was no big deal right?”

“Y-yeah…”

“So don’t worry about it. I’m not mad or anything.”

“Oh, good,” Mi-hee exhaled, relieved.

“Jeez, you don’t know that much about me at all, do you?” Jonghyun jabbed playfully. “I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway.”

“Hmm?”

Jonghyun picked up their plane tickets and waved them freely. “We’ll have lots of time to get to know one another. After all, we’re sitting conveniently right next to each other.”

============================================================================================

I have to say, writing this story is really fun!

Don't get me wrong, writing And So We Go is really exciting too. But this one is so much more... carefree? compared to And So We Go.

It's a lot less serious, even though I tend to write more serious stories, this one is really quite fun.

It's nice to change things up a bit!

-dayturnstonight