The smell of pastries wafted into Jaejoong’s room. Tae Hee’s stomach growled.

A knock sounded at the door. “Jaejoong?” It was Sung Hee. Before he motioned for her to come in, she had already flung the door open. Sung Hee’s smile weakened. “Tae Hee.”

Tae Hee frowned and then looked at her hands. Oh. She let go of her brother’s hand, at least she attempted to. He clung on tightly.

“Sung Hee? What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I...uh...baked you some...stuff...” she stammered. Since when did Sung Hee bake?

He flashed her a smile. “Thanks, Sung Hee.” He looked around his room. “Ok, you can go now.”

Tae Hee stood up, ready to leave. Sung Hee beamed happily.

“No, I didn’t mean you.” He said to his sister. “Bye Sung Hee.” He pointed to the door.

She had no choice but to leave.



“That was mean of you,” Tae Hee stated softly.

“So? It’s not like I like her anyway.” Jaejoong shrugged.

She couldn’t help but let a smile escape her stern face. “But still...”

“JEONG HEE?”

The siblings craned their heads toward the doorway. “Umma?” Jaejoong asked.

“Mrs. Kim,” Tae Hee greeted politely.

“Oh Jeong Hee, you don’t need to call me that. After all, we ARE family.”

Tae Hee shuddered at the word.

“Umma, you still haven’t gotten her name right. Her name’s Tae Hee, not Jeong Hee,” he corrected.

“Oh, ok, fine. Tae Hee, I’m so glad you came!”

“Err... Mrs. Kim? I just came to visit Jaejoong...”

As if she hadn’t heard, their mother continued, “I was just about to go look for you too! Your appa and I have decided to officially declare that KPC has gotten a new CEO, Kim Tae Hee, at tomorrow night’s function.”

She was silent. She still had yet to accept the fact.

Mrs. Kim droned on, “So, we were thinking that you should move to Seoul High next week with Jaejoong, when he returns to his real school. And to celebrate this all, we were thinking about hosting a pool party with your high school friends.”

The siblings glanced at each other. What a way to tell them all (other than Younha) that there was going on.

Tae Hee laid her eyes upon Jaejoong’s gold clock and they dilated. “OH CRAP! It’s 6:50!” She stood up and ran out of the room.


*****


How could she have forgotten the date with Jiwoon? “SHOOT! SHOOT! SHOOT!” she cursed as her cell phone rang. “HELLO?”

“Hey, girlfriend. OW! It’s me, your OW!---“

She heard Yoochun in the background. “DON’T YOU DARE SAY BOYFRIEND! I’M HER BOYFRIEND!”

She smiled.

Jiwoon continued, “Well, I was planning to bring you on a really expensive dinner, but somebody, *COUGH* YOOCHUN *COUGH*, just HAD to invite himself. So I guess...we’re going to the lame movies like we planned. Is that alright with you?”

“Oh sure. Is it still at 7?”

“Oh no, the movie starts at 7:45.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. Close call. “Ok, I’ll be there.”



She rolled her eyes as she attempted to watch the movie, but she couldn’t. Yoochun and Jiwoon were just too loud.

“GIMME SOME OF THAT CHOCOLATE!” Yoochun shouted, reaching over Tae Hee.

“NO! IT’S ALL TAE HEE AND MINE’S!” Jiwoon snapped, hugging the candy protectively.

“SHARE!”

“NO!”

“I’M GOING TO THROW MY SODA IN YOUR FACE!”

“PSH. I’VE GOT SODA TOO!”

About to blow her top, Tae Hee shouted. “OMG! STOP!” They fell silent. “If you guys just wanted to fight, then what’s the point of wasting money on buying tickets when you’re not even going to watch the movie?” She huffed angrily.

“Sorry...” they both apologized.

“God!”


Tae Hee rubbed her hands together to warm them as they stepped out of the theater.

Being gentlemanly, Yoochun offered, “Here, have my jacket.” He slipped it on her shoulders.

Sensing another competition was about to arise, Jiwoon hugged her. “You don’t need a jacket... you’ve got me!”

Yoochun tried to pry Jiwoon away from her. “GET AWAY FROM HER! SHE PROBABLY DOESN’T EVEN WANT YOU NEAR HER!”

“PSH, SHE WOULD HAVE PUSHED ME AWAY IF SHE DIDN’T WANT IT!”

“MAYBE ‘CAUSE YOU’RE HOLDING HER TOO TIGHTLY!”

Tae Hee coughed. “I’m warm now. You can let go now, Jiwoon oppa.” Yoochun smirked. “And you can have your jacket back.” Jiwoon laughed. “Thanks for such a...” She forced herself to say it. “great night!” She kissed each on the cheek. They blushed a crimson red. Before she forgot, “Oh yeah. My...brother... and I are hosting a swim party tomorrow and I was just wondering if you guys want to come.” It hurt her to say the word ‘brother’.

Jiwoon’s eyes gleamed with interest. “Will you be wearing a bikini?”

“Err... am I supposed to?” she asked nervously.

“Um, yeah. That’s the whole point of a swim party,” Yoochun pointed out.

“Well then, I guess I have to, huh?”

“NOSE BLEED!” Jiwoon joked.

“We’ll be there,” the other informed happily. However, he was still skeptical. Since when did Tae Hee have a brother? Oh yeah, right, he reminded himself.


*****

At her request, they dropped her off at Jaejoong’s home. “Miss Kim?” the maid asked, surprised at her return.

“Hey...”

“Ji Eun.”

“Hey Ji Eun. I think I’ll be staying here for the night.”

“Oh really? The mistress will be pleased.” She winked at Tae Hee. “And may I add, the young master was also in a better mood after your visit.”



“This is your room, miss.”

Tae Hee stepped in and her jaw dropped. Although her room wasn’t as grand and large as Jaejoong’s, it was about four times the size of her previous bedroom. The bed itself was equal to about three times a King-sized bed.

“Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake?”

“It’s yours, miss.” Ji Eun grinned. “Wanna see your wardrobe?”


Ji Eun led her to the closet. If her jaw could’ve dropped any more, it would’ve. “OMG,” she whispered in disbelief. “Is this all mine?”

There were a total of five closets”---the first four, each for a different season. In each sub-closet, there were articles of clothing according to type and color. In the last sub-closet, all it contained were shoes...shoes...and more shoes.

“I can live in here!” she exclaimed, obviously ecstatic.

“Like it?” Jaejoong asked. Tae Hee whirled around.

“Like it? I love it!” She looked concerned. “What are you doing, hobbling around the house. You’re supposed to be in bed, getting more rest.”

“Well girls like a bad boy so I’ll be okay.”

Psh, bad boy? Yeah right.

“No seriously. And how will you be swimming anyway? With all those cuts and bruises...”

“You haven’t been around before, eh? The whole point of a swim party is to party, not swim. Idiot.”

“Oh...” she pondered for a moment. “So that means I don’t have to wear a bikini, right? I mean, it’s not as if you were those skimpy little tops when you’re at school dances.”

He shook his head at her. His poor sister certainly was innocent.


*****

She snuggled under the silk covers, feeling excited. She’d be attending her first pool party. How awesome was that? Then she felt a pang of guilt. She should’ve notified her foster mom first.

Her thoughts were broken as Jaejoong entered her bedroom. “Hey, you asleep yet?”

She shook her head. “Nope...” She contemplated whether or not she should say it. “Not yet, Jaejoong oppa.”

“Good.” He grinned devilishly. Pulling out two swimsuits from behind his back, he asked, “Which one?”

She was revolted. “Can I not choose? They’re both rather... tiny? Skimpy? Inadequate? It’s like covering...nothing!”

“That’s the whole point!”

“Oh yes! The whole point of hosting a swim party with me in one of those things so I can give everybody nosebleeds, huh?” she answered sarcastically.

“Geez, so modest.”

“Don’t we have like... one pieces?”

He looked away as if he was ashamed. “Eww... No. Nobody wears one pieces nowadays---especially when you’re SEVENTEEN! You’re supposed to be showing off your wares.” Ooo, suggestive. XD

“Uh...no. We can’t exactly have Jiwoon and Yoochun fighting again, now can we?” she chuckled.

“Well then, we’ll put them in a cage---separate cages, of course. Then they can’t fight.”

She chortled. “And put them on display, eh? Like the zoo!”

Jaejoong smiled.

The laughter ended. “Hey oppa? I was just wondering...”

“About Ri In?”

She nodded. “Her and what happened at that function...”

“Oh... well, it was pretty much the usual,” he lied. “And like I said, Ri In was just an ex-girlfriend.”

“Oh. Okay.” She seemed rather disappointed.


Before he dug too deep of a hole, he quickly ended the conversation. “Well, good night Tae Hee. You’ll need as much energy as you can get, what with the pool party and function tomorrow.”


He tucked her in and kissed her forehead.

As he reached the exit, she said quietly, “Oppa, saranghaeyo.”

A slight smile crawled upon his face. He closed the door and whispered to the door, “Saranghaeyo, dongsaeng.”


And then the smile vanished.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thanks for reading :)