Chapter Eight: Eventful Evening

Word Count: 4500+ 

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SOOKYUNG

We're taught from a very early age that being nice is a virtue, our parents told us from the time we were infants to always be nice.  They taught us to be polite and to share, and to be considerate and kind. It is good advice, having manners is important, but when you're too nice and always help people, people tend to take advantage of you. Relationships require mutual respect. However, one can be too nice and when you're too nice, people will always lean on you and expect too always recieve your aid.

Sookyung sighed and stopped writing, why is she writing such a depressing essay? It's for her school project, they're supposed to pick a virtue or a sin and write an essay about it, and of course Sookyung picked the virtue she could relate to the most; kindness. Minnie, Kris, Lulu and Chen also recieved this assignment, but they're probably planning on doing it last minute. Sookyung on the other hand woke up early on Saturday morning so she could do her homework. I'm not weird, I mean I just think my grades are important unlike others.

She tried writing again, but she didn't have any inspiration. I'll bring my notebook to the beach today so I can write if I get ideas. Soo-kyung rose from her seat and paced back and forth in the room. She's so bored! Maybe she should go on and pack for everyone? Most of them don't wake up until around 10 on weekdays. Sookyung glanced at her roommate, Jonginna, she looks so peaceful while sleeping.

Sookyung grabbed all the things everyone would need, towels, sunscreen, Baekhyuna's sunglasses,  Kris' magazines, Lay's iPod, and Channie's volleyball. She organized and pulled out everyone's bikinis/swimwear in case they lost it or something. After an hour of packing she only had two things left to do on her list. Go pack Sehuna and Lulu's things+ Make breakfast and picnic for everyone!

It's quite hard work for a girl in her age to do ALL by herself, but she knows her friends will be truly grateful. Sookyung had to make sure she was careful when entering Lulu and Sehuna's room, it's one of Lulu's pet peeves when people disturb her sleep. If Sookyung make Lulu mad and bossy everyone's going to blame it on her and it wouldn't be the first time.

Sookyung was taken by surprise though, Sehuna was already awake. Sehuna turned around and gave her a small smile. "Annyeong, unnie! What brings you here?" She asked. Sookyung checked the clock hanging around her arm. It's only 8.20 in the morning! Why is Sehuna up so early? 

"I came to pack things for our beach trip today, why are you up this early?" Sookyung asked.

"Oh," Sehuna blushed and hid the poem she was writing. "I wasn't doing anything interesting, just working on some late homework."

"Okay," Sookyung flashed her a smile. "It's nice to see you're feeling better, now you can go back to school on Monday and you can come with us to the beach! Where's your swimwear?" She asked.

Sehuna fiddled with her fingers. "I don't exactly have any bikinis, or a swimsuit. I don't hang out at the beach that often, so I left all things back home.." she confessed. 

Sookyung giggled. "Well, that's no problem! You're around the same size as Tao I think, so you can just borrow one of hers!" She proposed. Sehuna looked at the older girl in disbelief, are you kidding with me!? Sehuna has never borrowed anything from anyone before, except for one when she wore Donghae's clothes... "I would let you borrow mine, but I don't think it will fit since you're much taller then me..," Sookyung pouted.

Slowly, a rosy scarlet color spread over Sehuna's cheeks, making her face take on an almost childlike appearance. Sookyung chuckled at Sehuna's reaction. Sehuna often blushes, but not even once this week they've known eachother has Sookyung seen her blush this red. Sehuna quickly turned her head away, embarrassed by her actions. 

She stuttered out her words nervously; "I-I would love that..," she confessed, but quickly hesitated. "But are you sure that Tao is alright with that? I don't want to intrude her privacy! I mean, there's a lot of people who are un comfortable when people wear their clothes and I don't want to start-off a conflict, if she finds it digusting I am fine with not swimming. I usually don't even find the beach that appealing-"

Sookyung used her hands to cover Sehuna's mouth and nudged her head towards Lulu's direction. "Hush, we don't want to deal with a angry Lu, now do we?" Sookyung whispered. Sehuna glanced over at her blonde friend who was on the verge of waking up from her deep slumber. Sehuna turned her eyes back to Sookyung and shook her head. "Exactly, now I will go get Tao's clothes, and if you would be sweet enough to lend me a hand please meet me in the kitchen in about three minutes."

10.00 AM

Around 10 AM, hell broke loose. Almost everyone except for Kris and Lulu were awake. Sehuna had helped Sookyung make some sandwiches they could take to the beach, meanwhile Sookyung made breakfast. They were all chatting happily, enjoying their food and discussing which activites they would engage in at the beach when Sehuna asked the question everyone dreaded to hear.

"There's still unnies upstairs sleeping, I don't think they're going to wake up anytime soon and we're leaving in one hour" Sehuna worried.

Everyone gave eachother looks before looking at the maknae. "Sehuna, can you do us unnies a favor?" Baekhyuna said in her cutest voice.

"Sure, anything!" The younger beamed.

Sookyung could guess which evil plans Baekhyuna had. "Don't make Sehuna go through hell just because she's the youngest, I'll do it instead.." Sookyung spoke bravely. Sehuna looked troubled, but the doe-eyed girl gave her a re-assuring pat on the back. "Hey, I'll be back any minute, alright? Keep on enjoying your lunch everyone!" She said, trying to sound as calm as possible. Everyone around the table were surprised by Sookyung's kind actions, but Layla was happy someone protected the maknae.

However, Sookyung quickly regretted her decision when she was walking up the stairs. Sookyung is not going to brag, but she's just too damn nice! Being kind isn't only a virtue, it's a sin as well. Ever since she was around 6 years old she always let everyone step over her and followed everyones instructions. Even is she's older then someone, she shows much respect to younger. Why? BECAUSE SHE IS TO KIND FOR HER OWN GOOD.

Sookyung bravely walked up to Kris' room, she's going to have to do this quick so she can escape the room as fast as possible. She doubts Kris will attack her, like Lulu probably will, but she's going to be really grumpy. Sookyung knocked on the door. "Kris, are you awake yet?" called Sookyung. No answer. She knocked harder. "Kris, we're going to the beach soon! You only have one hour to get ready!" 

She heard rumbling inside the room and the door opened. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier!?" The tall girl panicked. "How can I possibly get ready in one hour?" Kris groaned.

"No worries!" Sookyung assured. "I have packed down all of your neccesary beach belongings, and your bikini is ready and hanging in the bathroom." Without a single, thank you, Kris rushed past her into the bathroom to get changed. Sookyung exhaled in relief, at least Kris didn't get upset, but she has to be prepared for Lulu who probably will be ten times worse.

Sookyung called after Lulu while knocking on the door, but no reply. Sookyung knew she had to enter the room now, and so she did. It's the best to get this over with quickly. "Unnie, we're going to the beach and we need to hurry up~" She whined and started shaking the blonde. "Come on, wake—"

"Oh my gosh! There's a burgular attacking me, get away from me!" Lulu's eyes were wide open while she shrieked like a little girl.

"No, it's just me Sookyung!"

"Oh my god! You're not a burgular? What are you? A ? Omona, help me there's a in my room!" She screamed.

Sookyung furrowed her eyebrows. Lulu, you are incredible, she waited for her friend to calm down and realize nobody was trying to attack her. It took around 30 seconds until Lulu started taking some calming breaths and glared at Sookyung. "What the was that? How rude of you to wake me up like that!" She cursed, and she only curses when she's really pissed. "If you weren't one of my closest friends I would totally sue you for this!"

"Strangle me if you want too, unnie. I was just trying to help, okay?" Sookyung snapped. "You could be a little more grateful that I took the pain of coming upstairs and waking you up when everyone else was too scared to do so!" She crossed her arms over her chest. "Be bossy if you want too, but the only thing you can do sue me for is for being too polite."

Lulu was shocked, never has Sookyung ever snapped at anyone! She must have a temper as well. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "But you have got to admit that you're bragging a little right n—"

"PLEASE I DON NOT WANT TO HEAR IT! NO, NO, AND NO!"

"Geez, and they say I'm a drama queen"

At The Beach An Hour Later

A person who is truly kind and sincere from within, will even help their enemies when they're in pain. Kindness is shown by someone who truly cares. They are willing to sacrifice to help someone else. They always have a kind word for everyone and are loved by most people. Kindness shows your goodness, love, forgiveness and mercy to others. It may be in deed, word or anonymously. You aren't kind just because you "act" in that way, it must come from within. A person who's not happy with themself, can never truly appreciate others.

Baekhyuna and Channie 'playfully' wrestled in the water, and Sookyung smiled at the sight of them. They are true friends. Sure, sometimes Baekhyuna might found Channie annoying, still they never leave eachother's sides. Lulu and Sehuna are good friends too, even though they don't know eachother that well yet. They stick to eachother like glue, and Lulu always teaches the maknae stuff, even if this stuff might not be good stuff.

"Unnie, what are you writing?" Jonginna, who was laying on the beachtowel next to Sookyung, glanced at the older girl's papers. "Don't tell me you're doing homework, at the beach. It's Saturday, your homework can wait until tomorrow!" Jonginna insisted.

"I know, but this assignment is kind of fun!" Sookyung confessed, the corners of her lips rising upwards into a shy grin.

"That's when you know something is off, how can english homework be fun?" Jonginna groaned.

Sookyung shrugged. "It's not as hard as you think, Jonginnie-ah. All I have to do is write it in korean, then I translate it as well as possible and look up words I don't understand in the dictionary."

"Isn't that cheating?"

"Aren't you minding other people's business to much?"

"Sorry for caring, unnie.." Jonginna rolled her eyes, but grinned a little.

Lulu and Sehuna were having a perfectly fun time, they didn't go deep into the water, only knee-high. They were playing around, splashing water at eachother, and soon enough Chen, Minnie, Baekhyuna and Channie had joined them. Lulu had the time of her life, her giggling could be heard by everyone at the beach, causing strangers to search for the source of the loud bursts of laughter. But she couldn't contain her laughter, and it was contagious making all of her friends laugh as well.

Yuck! Who are these idiots laughing like pigs and giggling like young school girls? Jonghyun who had come to the beach with his friends, a group called SHINee at SM High, was highly annoyed. But he smirked when he find the source of all the noise. He had secretly hoped they would be here today. Jonghyun ran up to his friends, they were fully concentrated on a game of volleyball that Jonghyun decided to interupt.

"Oh! Jonghyun hyung, have you changed your mind and decided to join us?" Taemin asked.

"Actually, yes! I was thinking we could play a little game with a couple of girls I know.." Jonghyun smirked.

Minho frowned, he knew Jonghyun was up to no good the second he mentioned that girls would be involved. Jonghyun has a player image and reputation, but he's not a bad person! Sadly, he acts like one on the outside to hide what he truly feels on the inside.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Jonghyun.. Your facial expression is radiating with mischeif. Let's just play on our own, we can have fun without girls!" Onew insisted.

"I've already invited them," he lied. "Wouldn't it be rude of me to un-invite them? They were so excited to play a game!"

"I suppose," Key murmured. "Fine, let them join us for one game and one game only! And next time you better ask us for permission first. Now go get them!"

Lulu shrieked and jolted visibly of surprise when someone wrapped their strong arms around her waist. Her eyes trailed down her body and stopped at the person's arms. Of course the person was no one other then Jonghyun.... "OH MY GOD! A E! PLEASE GET HIM OF ME PLEASE HELP ME HE IS TRYING TO ME!" She yelled, faking tears.

Jonghyun laughed nervosly and bowed apologetically at people staring at them. "Don't worry! She has this real disease that makes her easily forget who people are and stuff like that!" He lied and covered her loud mouth with his hands. "I'm her boyfriend."

No, he's not! Lulu wanted to scream, but his digusting hand trapped her words in . She looked with pleading eyes at her friends, but none of them budged. Baekhyuna, Chen and Channie looked extremely amused— remind her to kill them later — Sehuna looked shocked and confused, and the only one who seemed to be concerned about her was Minnie.

"Yah, Jonghyun-ah! Let my friend go!" Minnie grabbed Lulu's arm and dragged her away from the jerk. "If you want to speak with her, you'll have to get through me first."

"Whatever, chubby cheeks.." Jonghyun rolled his eyes. "I was just going to ask if a few of you girls would like to play some beach volleyball with me and the rest of SHINee."

"T-THINee?" Sehuna's lisp made her pronounce the name wrong. "Who are THINee? I've never heard of them.."

"Not THINee, SHINee!" Chen corrected her. "SHINee is this group of very popular boys we have at our school, they call themselves SHINee and their fangirls are called Shawols. They often compete in the school's competitions and usually win. They're pretty much the Kingkas, the girls version of them are (f)x." Chen started explainining while Minnie argued with Jonghyun.

"There's five members," Baekhyuna came closer and whispered. "Taemin is the first one, he's the youngest and a great dancer. Minho is the tall one, he's very handsome. Key is a little of a diva, he often changes his hair color. Onew is their leader, don't know much about him except he's obsessed with chicken. The fifth member would be Jonghyun, the player."

Minnie and Jonghyun had finished their argument. Lulu turned around and smiled at her friends. "Channie, would you mind playing a game against some oppas with your unnie?" Lulu said in her 'sweet voice'. Channie didn't want to land on Lulu's bad side and nodded.

"Great! Chen and Minnie, you'll come and watch us! Sehuna and Baekhyuna, gather the other girls and tell them to come watch too! I want everyone to witness when we win!" Jonghyun scoffed in response. No way he's letting Lulu win this game!

"Okay, unnie! Let's go Baekhyuna unnie," Sehuna grabbed her unnie's hand and pulled her over to where Kris, Tao, Suhonna, Layla, Jonginna and Sookyung sat. Suhonna and Layla were munching on some sandwiches, apperantely they couldn't wait and didn't want to watch the disaster game. Tao had fallen asleep and Kris was busy with reading her magazines. "Kris unnie, shouldn't you put on some sunscreen though? You're sitting right under the sun..." Sehuna worried.

"No worries!" The Chinese-Canadian chuckled. "I know what I'm doing, Sehuna. I'm not stupid. I can take care of my skin myself."

Baekhyuna rolled her eyes and they continued and stopped by Sookyung and Jonginna. "Would you like to watch a volleyball game, Jonginna?" Jonginna shook her head. "Okay, Sookyung unnie, would you like too?" Sehuna asked. 

Sookyung flashed a smile so bright the tan girl sitting beside her thought she had been blinded by the sun. Her smile was like the sun lighting up the sky. Like it was a bleak and rainy day - but then the sun came over the horizon, shining it's beautiful rays up into the sky. And to make her smile even more appealing, her eyes twinkled beautifully. 

The day was warm and humid, not to hot, but suddenly Jonginna felt like someone had lit her on fire. Jonginna felt slightly jealous, this is the most beautiful smile she has ever seen, why is Sookyung smiling like that around her cousin and not her? Sookyung gave Sehuna and Baekhyuna a short nod, and rose from her seat. She brushed of the sand on her body and glanced at Jonginna.

"Are you sure you don't want to join us and watch?" Sookyung asked. 

Jonginna shook her head once again. "I'm fine right here, I think I'll take a quick dip in the water and just rest some more."

Sookyung scrunched her nose up. Jonginna is confusing her. Yesterday Jonginna was estatic about going to the beach and being wild and having lots of fun. But the whole day Jonginna sat by Sookyung's side and just sunbathed. That's not even Jonginna's thing, she already has tan and nice skin. Normally, she's bouncing around in the water!

"Unnie, we have to hurry!" Sehuna whined and interlaced her hand with Sookyung's. Jonginna glared at their entwined fingers like she was trying to burn a hole. "We'll come back later and have a picnic with you, Jonginna!"

"Yes! Sure! Abandon me!"

"Are you okay?" Baekhyuna worried.

"I AM FINE NOW GO OR YOU'LL MISS THE GAME."

Baekhyuna gasped. "No need to snap.., I was just asking!" She pouted and strutted away in the direction where the volleyball game took place. Sookyung and Sehuna didn't feel like arguing with Jonginna and ran after Baekhyuna.

Five Minutes Later

Boys VS Girls. The players on the right side were Jonghyun and Minho, on the left side were Lulu and Channie. Minho had insisted that it was only going to be a friendly game, and Channie agreed, but Jonghyun was greedy to win. Lulu wanted to beat Jonghyun, and hard. But she also wanted to enjoy herself and not let her greed take over, even if it would be fun seeing Jonghyun crying after he lost to girls.

Taemin, the maknae of SHINee, sat down on Sehuna's right side meanwhile Sookyung sat on her left. "Hi," he extended his hand and Sehuna nervously shook it. "My name's Taemin, we're in the same class, but you might not have noticed me."

"No, you're not so noticeable.." Sehuna murmured, and blushed realizing what she had said. "Oh god, I must apologize! I did not mean to insult you in any kind of way, what I meant to say is that most people in our class are very loud. It's hard to notice others," she apologized.

Taemin laughed and shook his head. "No sweat," his words made her calm down a little. "I heard you're Jonginna's cousin, she and I are sort of friends." He smiled. "Has she said anything about me?"

Sehuna innocently shook her head. "No, but Lulu mentioned that you and Jonginna are... aqquainted." Sehuna knew she shouldn't reveal to Taemin about Jonginna's feelings for him. "I heard you're good at dancing, both me and Jonginna love dancing! I guess it runs in the blood."

"Mhm," he nodded. "Jonginna's a talented dancer.. but are you sure she hasn't mentioned me at all?"

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Taemin-ssi." Sehuna let her slender fingers play with the sand underneath them. "Me and Jonginna might be cousins, but we don't get along especially well. I don't think that Jonginna likes me. We only briefly spoke before I came here, and she was supposed to show me around, but she forgot. I don't blame her or anything, I bet she's a great person! I don't remember doing anything, but we just don't have a longer conversation then a simple hi." Sehuna felt a little relieved letting these things off her chest.

She didn't bother super much that she and Jonginna aren't close, but know that she's mentioning it out loud she realizes she would like to have a closer friendship with her cousin. Their friends afterall. Perhaps Jonginna doesn't like her because of her past? Taemin was flabbergasted, he knows that Jonginna's tends to shy away from people, except when she's dancing. But Sehuna's her own blood!

"I apologize for her, she's probably just a little nervous, give her a little more time and I'm sure you'll get along better!" He assured. "The two of you are very alike, both of you love dancing and are a little shy." He rose from the ground. "I'll be going back to my hyungs now, but it's nice getting to know you! I hope we can be friends, because I want to be friends with people Jonginna are close too."

Sehuna nodded, Taemin's so straight-forward! He's really cute too, no wonder Jonginna likes him. Taemin seems to like her back. Sehuna suddenly figured out how she would win the key to Jonginna's friendship! Sookyung who sat beside Sehuna had pretended not to hear their conversation, but secretly eaves-dropped. She had no idea Sehuna felt like Jonginna was abandoning her! She'll have to tell Jonginna about this later.

Kindness isn't cheap, just like for everything else there's a price you must pay. People say that family and friends are automatically always nice to eachother, but they fight too! It's only normal to argue and scold the people you love a few times, you're doing it because you care about them, not because you want to be rude. Sometimes your friends might not say they appreciate what you do for them, but that doesn't meen they're un grateful. Everyone shows kindness in difFerent ways.

The point I'm trying to make here is that kidnness really is a virtue and a sin. Kindness is an act of love, but sometimes love hurts. Just because you give others, it doesn't mean you will recieve. Some days, things are just un fair, but that's how life works. Justice will not always be served to the kind people just because their polite.

Sookyung was so obessesed with her writing she didn't even pay attention to the game. She didn't understand that Lulu and Channie had won until Chen, Minnie and Baekhyuna started applauding. Lulu pulled Sehuna into embrace and they were hugging closely, squealing and cheering over Lulu and Channie's success. Minho congratulated them, and smiled, but Jonghyun was a sore loser. He still refused to get it through his thick skull that he had lost.

"I cannot believe that I lost to a pair of girls, especially not you girls, you must have cheated!" He accused them. His normally calm and michevious demeanor slowly changed and hos face contorted in an all - consuming anger; his nostrils flaring, his eyes flashing and closing into slits. He would have hit the blonde girl when she stuck out her tongue and , oh boy is she lucky she's a female! 

He might be a player, he might be a jerk according to a few people, but even he has got his limits. Hitting or hurting girls physically is off limits even for him! His hands closed into fists and he crouched forward, daring Lulu to repeat once more the actions that had torn made him even more pissed, turning his heart into fragments. This stupid blonde ex-girlfriend of his had completely ruined the day! He was supposed to have fun at the beach, flirt with some girls, but here he is competing with no other girl than LULU.

"Unbelievable, here you are standing accusing me of cheating when I won the game with good teamwork and hardwork. Jonghyun-ah, the least I would expect from you is good sportsmanship, be a decent person" She smirked. Sehuna snickered and her friend erupted in giggles. Jonghyun did his best to not become as red as a tomato and just glared at his former girlfriend.

"I will make you regret this, and this time I won't be breaking my promise" Jonghyun bolted.

The girls cheered, celebrating their win and ignoring Jonghyun's rude behavior. Lulu's not afraid of him, even though she rather would avoid annoying conflicts. In that moment, Lulu could not contain her happiness, she couldn't describe the feeling she felt inside. Her definiton of the feeling would be great.

~

This assignment was supposed to define kindness. There are many definitions in my opinon except for the usual one, 'being nice'. There's commiting a considerate act, showing people respect even though you might not be friends (which requires courage), someone kind can be brave, helpful, sweet, over-protective, and lot of other things. In my opinion, it all depends on how you, yourself would like to see it. In my opinion, kindess isn't fully un-selfish, because you benifit from it. Every little smile you create, makes a difference. So even if you say a simple 'hi' to someone random on the street, and they glare at you like 'why the heck ar you talking with me?' you would probably feel embarrassed. But don't. So what if the person didn't appreciate it? At least you know that you're a good person who takes time to do things for people who might not care. Look at things from the positive side, and the next time you say 'hi' to a stranger, maybe you'll make a new friend?

That's the best thing about kindness. 

Friends.

Sookyung push aside her homework and yawned, stretching her arms in the process. Jonginna tapped her shoulder. "Sookyung unnie, now that you're done with homework, can you do mine?" Jonginna asked.

Sookyung smiled sheepishly. "How about I help you with your homework instead? Give you a few tips."

"That's going to take so much longer time...," Jonginna whined. 

Sookyung rolled her eyes. "Well stick to the rules or you're not recieving my services!" She winked. 

"Sometimes friends might be a little self-centered, but if you really want to test them, then lie, an obvious lie, and hurt your friend, and then apologize. A true friend will forgive you, because they know you regret your mistakes.

And how am I so sure of that?

Because friends always forgive eachother, forgivness, perhaps that it she best way to define the word kindness.