About four weeks had passed since Choyoung’s mouth was first introduced to her braces and for the first time, she was getting her braces tightened. Her parents, her cousin who they were taking care of for the day Jisung, and her were seated at the four uncomfortable, worn out chairs lined up against the wall. Her light pink canvas backpack held together with chestnut buckles and straps sat by her feet, holding all of her books needed for her assignments. She looked over at her well-cared for bag and cringed, wondering what made her so compelled to buy it in that color. It was so girly. But she liked pink too. Complications.

“Hey, Choyoung!”

Her head snapped up at the sound of the voice, and yet again, she saw the face that haunted her nightmares. Today was Soonyoung’s orthodontist appointment and like Choyoung, he was getting his braces tightened as well. Choyoung could feel her father’s unapproving eyes glaring at her, wondering who this boy was. If her dad found out that Soonyoung and her talked on a regular basis, against her will of course, she would be in deep trouble. The Kwons settled in the chair across from the Kwans; the parents introducing themselves to one another.

“Hello there, I’m Kwon Miryeong, Soonyoung’s mother,” the young woman bowed her head slightly, eyes disappearing like Soonyoung’s when she smiled.

Choyoung’s mother returned the gesture, “Hello, I’m Kwan Mirae. Nice to meet you! I’m Choyoung’s mother. This is my husband, Yoosung,” Her father bowed his head to Mr. Kwon.

“I’ve heard so many good things about your daughter!” Mrs. Kwon chimed, causing Soonyoung to gently elbow his mom on her arm. Ignoring this, she continued, “They go to the same school together,”

“Ah, yes,” Mrs. Kwan nodded, recognizing Soonyoung’s mom from the high school’s Mother Club, “Your son is in second year, yes?”

Choyoung could now feel her father’s stare burning her through her clothes. If he didn’t approve of boys her age, he definitely condemned all types of older boy interaction. Mrs. Kwan nodded and all Soonyoung could do was smile at Choyoung’s parents. His eyes met her fiery ones, and he mouthed an innocent, “Why?”

“You know exactly why,” Choyoung mouthed back, crinkling her nose at him.

Soonyoung chuckled and brought his hand up to brush his bangs away from his face. Choyoung swore that she saw him wink. She probably needed glasses too. Their parents, moreso their mothers, continued to converse with each other as their dads were constantly eyeing them. Choyoung’s dad stared at Soonyoung as if there was no tomorrow and Soonyoung’s dad sized her up if she was even worth his son’s time. Choyoung avoided the elders’ eyes as much as possible and decided to do homework while she waited.

In a few hours, her and Soonyoung were finally called to the orthodontist’s room. They were supposed to have their appointment earlier but there were three kids ahead of them getting braces and the dentists were behind on their schedule. they happened to be led into the same room. There were two chairs side-by-side in the room meaning that they had to be next to each other. Great. Another reason for Soonyoung to be around Choyoung.

“If you find that you can’t tolerate the pain, then you can buy some over the counter pain relievers like Tylenol and take that as instructed,” the lady at the front desk told the two teens as she handed them their complimentary goody bags full of brushing supplies.

Soonyoung and Choyoung bowed their heads and thanked her, entering the hallway out to the front lobby. It took about half an hour to tighten their braces for each of them. They both cupped their swollen faces, and groaning about how miserable they felt about their newly tightened braces. Choyoung managed a cheeky grin up at Soonyoung when she saw the new color of his bands: turquoise on the top row and pink on the bottom set. Before the orthodontists had entered the room, they had dared each other to wear colors that the other chose. To torment him, Choyoung chose her old band colors while Soonyoung made her choose interchanging neon lime green and neon pink. She couldn’t help but laughing at the face Dr. Jung made at Soonyoung when he asked for pink. The orthodontists were a pair of twins and each one worked side by side when it came to same day brace tightening. The thing was, one called himself Dr. Jung while the other was Dr. Dongyu.

“What are you laughing at?” Soonyoung bitterly asked, lightly tilting her head with his free hand.

“Nothing,” Choyoung managed to say despite her discomfort, “It’s just…pink,”

“Shut up,”

They arrived at the door, and being the gentleman he is, Soonyoung went ahead and held the door open for her. She rolled her eyes as she walked out and watched as both sets of parents, stood up. Soonyoung and her walked over to their respective families and a whole flood of complaints rained down.

“Can we go get ice cream?”

“My face hurts,”

“I’m going to die,”

“It’s alright, don’t worry. We knew this would happen,” Choyoung’s mom reassured her fidgety daughter, “So Mrs. Kwan and I decided that we should all go to the mall and buy ice cream to ease the pain,”

Choyoung’s face went from frowning to drop the bass when she heard of the plans their parents had made without her consent. Soonyoung on the other hand was delighted. Not to disrespect Soonyoung’s parents, Choyoung agreed to the plans and told herself that she was in on it for the ice cream, not because she actually liked hanging out with Soonyoung and his family. Thank goodness that it was the weekend so she didn’t have to do her homework immediately.

“Oh by the way Choyoung,” her dad pulled her back as they walked out onto the parking lot, “Your mother and I have to drop Jisung off at his math session. The Kwons were nice enough to take you with them to the mall and wait for us until with get there,”

“What?” Choyoung couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

Before her dad could say anything else, she heard Mrs. Kwon yell from their minivan, “Choyoung, dear, you can sit with Soonyoung in the back!”

Her father patted her back reassuringly and pulled the keys rom his pocket, telling her that it’ll only be for a few minutes. Choyoung couldn’t believe her parents actually trusted another family. Sure, they seemed like a regular Korean family but what if they were secretly not what they seemed to be on the surface? She put on the most fake sincere look on her face and climbed into the back, with Soonyoung following in after her.

Choyoung had to give it to them that it was comfortable. The leather seats were no longer tough and hard but more soft and pliable. It cushioned her nicely but she didn’t say that out loud, of course. It smelled like nature inside; a mixture of grass and dirt, to be more specific. Soonyoung’s soccer uniform, safety equipment and other athletic gear that was covered in mud and grass stains, were thrown around messily in the last row of the van. It didn’t smell bad. It smelled…well, like Soonyoung. And though she would never admit to it, she liked Soonyoung’s scent. Especially before he went to soccer practice after school.

“So how old are you, Choyoung?” Mrs. Kwon asked from the front, busy touching up her make up in the front of the car.

“I’m turning 15,” she answered politely, remembering to smile. She heard Soonyoung slightly gag. He couldn’t believe how sweet she was being. She turned to glare at him and he simply shot an eye smile at her. Choyoung threatened to gag but she didn’t out of respect for Mrs. Kwon.

“Wow, you’re so young!” Mrs. Kwon exclaimed, which get her a confused stare from the two teens in the back. Soonyoung was literally only one year older than her. A one year difference didn’t make him old.

“What activities do you do outside of school?” Mr. Kwon suddenly asked from the front.

This question surprised Choyoung mainly because she didn’t want to tell him that she did nothing after school. She could feel Soonyoung’s thoughts making fun of her because he of all people knew that she just went straight home when she was picked up. Choyoung cleared , “Um, I’m planning on doing the Spring musical. As far as after school activities go, I don’t really have the time to,”

All eyes were now turned to her. Choyoung saved herself by saying, “I spend that time doing homework and studying,”

The tension disappeared and the Kwons started breathing again. Soonyoung’s parents were pleased with her dedication to studying and her school work. If only they knew.

“What school play?”

Are you serious. Choyoung suppressed the intense feeling of wanting to strangle Soonyoung right then and there. She could see the smirk playing on his lips; he knew that there was no way she would actually audition for the school play to work alongside the drama kids she hated so much. But of course, if he ever confronted her about it, she could just as easily say, “I’m doing it because Seunggwan is definitely going to get lead this year,” and get him angry.

“Oh, um I think they’re going to start holding auditions for it next month,” Choyoung lied, hoping that she was actually within the time frame of the play auditions.

“Oh right,” Soonyoung played along, “I forgot about that. Maybe I should try out as well,”

‘How about no?’ she thought.

In about a few minutes, they pulled into a parking spot not too far away from the mall’s West side entrance. Choyoung was relieved that they didn’t have to do any more awkward talking. The four of them headed up to the top floor where the food court was located and settled themselves at two tables in the ice cream shop. A table for four for the adults and a table for two for Soonyoung and Choyoung. The parlor was a small walk-in shop, where you could serve yourself to whatever you wanted and they would pay you according to the weight and size of your cup. They all split ways after entering the parlor; even the Kwon parents getting medium sizes for themselves.

“Where are you going?” Soonyoung asked, noticing that Choyoung was heading in the direction opposite the ice cream machine. He decided to follow her like he always did.

Choyoung stopped in front of the lever that released mango flavored yogurt and poured herself about half of the medium cup. She didn’t like to go heavy when it came to desserts. She hardly ever finished it at all. Soonyoung read the labels and decided that he would try the coffee flavor to see why Choyoung picked this over ice cream.

“Are you just going to follow me around?” Choyoung asked, as she put a couple of gummy bears on her serving, watching Soonyoung top his off with gummy bears as well.

She also placed a few strawberry pieces and raspberries in her cup and shook her head smiling when she saw Soonyoung put chocolate chips and sprinkles in his cup. No wonder he was always hyper. With all that sugar in his system, it would be no surprise if all he did was talk on the way home. They just finished paying just as Choyoung’s parents entered the parlor. They told the four to go ahead and get seated while they got their own helpings.

“You are going to die,” Choyoung pointed out the amount of sugar stuffed in his cup as Soonyoung took his first bite.

Immediately, his face scrunched up, not realizing how sour it would be. The worst part was he had gotten coffee flavor so it was bitter as well. Choyoung stuck a spoonful of her treat in and a smile appeared on her face. She was content with hers. The tartness and sweetness of the fruits nullified the overwhelming sour aspect of the yogurt. Teasingly, she asked Soonyoung what was so bad about frozen yogurt.

“You want to try? It’ll make you cry,” Soonyoung challenged her to try his version, holding the spoon up to , “Ahhh…”

Choyoung tried it for herself and found herself making a similar face as he did. Soonyoung found her expression enjoyable and covered his mouth to laugh. Once she recovered from her sugar attack, she held out her spoon to him like he did to her, “Here, try mine. If you like it, we can share mine and you won’t have to worry about finishing yours,”

Choyoung assured herself that this would be the one and only time she would ever help him out. She knew that his mouth was just as sore as hers right now and she didn’t want him to suffer the pain. Besides, she owed him one for offering to drive her to the mall when her parents couldn’t. When Soonyoung gave his thumbs up of approval, Choyoung set the cup down between them and she split the remaining yogurt down the middle pushing the gummy bears towards her side while she was at it, “I’ll take these, if you don’t mind,”

“Actually, because no girl wants to ruin their figure, I think I should take those,” Soonyoung took rolled them back to his side and replaced them with strawberries, “And you can take these,”

Wow. What a gentleman. She decided that it would be better for her in the long run because gummy bears would damage the braces anyway and that Soonyoung was doing her a favor without actually knowing it. He could damage his own braces. That would be his personal problem. The bangs that brushed across their foreheads brushed against each other as the two leaned in to share the one cup; often bickering about one stealing some yogurt or a topping from the other’s side.

Little did they know that a particular lady, was analyzing their every move with a hawk’s eye.

author's note: so i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter c: i started writing this on the weekend but i wasn't satisfied with the length so i extended it. the most convenient part was that i had no homework tonight other than studying, of course, so i beta-ed and posted the chapter just for you! i'm grateful for the positive feedback htbf! has gained and hopefully, you continue to support this story. 

i will be going to sleep now so i can wake up early to watch seventeen's livestream tomorrow morning while i prepare for school. how many of you are going to be watching it? c: