Dear Thunder,

Won't you leave me alone?

Do you have to keep appearing at the recesses of my mind where I least expect you?

Could you at least give me one free day?

Or is that too much to ask..

Because from now on, I'm going to focus more on my life, and less on you.

<~~>

"Honey hand me the china will you?" Mr. Park called from the kitchen, his head completely submerged in the cabinets. His hands were covered with soot, but that didn't stop him from putting his best into fitting in. It had taken them three months to land this house, and it definitely wasn't cheap. Even though they were in the suburban outskirts of Seoul, the land owners used that as an excuse to up the price, making all buyers groan in frustration. Luckily, the Park family pulled the right strings and the land owner didn't hassle too much with them before signing the contract.

Park Chunhee was hard at work, however, and didn't hear her father's call for help. Wiping away the sweat from her forehead with her wrist, she crouched back down and got to work. She was the one in charge of gardening and maintaining both the front and back yards; keeping both immaculate at the same time. Her dad was in charge of cooking and making sure Chunhee kept on task. Since their mother was mentally crippled, she couldn't do much except for the laundry and setting the table, and other common chores that required basically no effort. Chunhee was forced to take over and do everything else; from repairing their old "car," to fixing up the air conditioning, Chunhee was the all-rounder, exactly what the family needed. She would've gotten a younger brother to help with the chores, except her mother fell ill right when the time to have another baby passed.

Sighing, she picked another stray weed out of the grass and stuffed it into her bucket. It was April, and she was hoping to make it in time to plant some flowers for the upcoming season. She knew it would take a whole lot of determination, but she had a surplus of that. Chunhee gazed around her, seeing the whole expanse of wild grass that was deemed the "front yard." Chunhee would've called it the grassland, but her father gave her a discerning look and told her to just it up. She had her straw gardening hat on, and thick gardening gloves, which made it extremely easy to sweat, even though she was wearing a tank top and shorts. While she was busy hacking away, a boy no older than 18 walked by, pausing because he was intrigued.

"Yah. Are you another one of those country bumpkins?" He snickered, then realized the girl couldn't hear him; she was humming along to the music pumping from her iPod.

"Yah! Country bumpkin, look at me when I'm talking to you!" He yelled, finally attracting the girl's attention.

"Hello?" She called tentatively, pulling out her earbuds. She turned around, flipping her dyed hair softly over her shoulder.

The boy was in shock. "How can a country bumpkin be pretty...," He thought, mentally slapping himself for feeling this way. "Um, er, hi. I was just, you know, intrigued. At what you were doing," The boy stammered, unable to keep his gaze away from the girl. Even though her face was caked with sweat, and she wore no make-up, he was at a loss for words. Her hourglass figure complimented her face perfectly, and her too-big hat cast a dim shadow over her face, making it seem alluring.

The girl shrugged, amused at the boy's reaction. It wasn't like she had t experienced this before, many guys at her old school was extremely attracted to her because of her good looks. "How may I help you?" She asked calmly, slowly approaching the boy. "He looks about the same age as me," She thought, wondering if she'd see him more often. He had a very sharp face, with prominent cheekbones making his face more picturesque. "Not bad, not at all..." She thought, chuckling mentally. Chunhee wasn't a self-conscious girl. She knew she was pretty and skinny, and she accepted compliments gracefully, as to not make herself seem desperate for more attention.

"Oh Sehun," The boy said, clearing his throat and supplying his hand.

"Park Chanhee," She replied, flashing him the coveted smile that made boys swoon. As expected, it did its job, and the boy blinked rapidly for a few seconds, barely able to believe what he saw.

"I'll see you around... I'm your neighbor by the way," The boy named Sehun said, attempting to regain his cool. He gestured towards the quaint house on Chanhee's right, then flashed her a quick smile.

"I have to get going, I'd like to know you more though," He said, pouting a bit. This caused Chanhee to chuckle, nodding her approval, "Sounds good. Feel free to drop by whenever," She said dismissively, knowing Sehun probably would.

<~~>

Later, when the Park family had "settled" down, Mr. Park forced Chunhee to introduce herself to the neighbors. Grumbling, Chunhee pulled on a boyfriend cardigan and skipped over to the boy Sehun's house.

"Annyeonghaseyo, Park Chunhee imnida! Please take care of me!" She said cheerily, curtsying a little. Chunhee had expected the boy's parents to show up, but when he lifted her head, seeing a smirk cover the boy's façade.

"That is just about the cheesiest thing I have ever heard..." He mumbled, his lips still curved in a smirk.

Chunhee scowled, gesturing towards the dark depths of the enormous house. It remained silent, except for the occasional creaks of the floor boards.

"They're.. Away," He muttered, shifting his glance to the muddy bricks on the floor.

"Oh," Chunhee replied, her voice softening up.

"Yeah..." Sehun mumbled, the atmosphere becoming awkward, "You want to come in? I just made dinner." Sehun pointed to the kitchen, and noticed a swirl of smoke coming out.

"Fire!" He cried, dashing into the house, nabbing an extinguisher from the wall.

Apparently it was placed in a very strategic location, for Sehun had multitudes of incidents of fires. Chunhee felt uncomfortable just standing there so she rushed into the house, forgetting to take her shoes off. When she got there, Sehun was already coughing and flimsily covering the entire kitchen with the extinguisher chemical. Chunhee realized in a flash that he was going to collapse.

"Sehun! Get away from the fire!" She yelled, taking a deep breath before diving into the kitchen. She barely saw Sehun's thin frame through the smoke, its tendrils wrapped around Sehun's throat, making him choke. Chunhee gasped, increasing her speed towards the shaking figure. When she reached him, she dragged his wrist away from the fire, fanning the flames in front of them. Sehun's coughs were getting worse, so she placed his body gently on the front lawn before rushing back into the fire, extinguishing the rest of the flames.

Finally she finished, placing the used extinguisher into its place, hacking coughs wracking her body. Chunhee barely made it outside; she was already seeing colorful spots in her vision.

"So this is how it feels to pass out..." She muttered, then collapsed to the ground, right next to Sehun.

<~~>

 

author's notes: hehe, did ya like that? ^^ i wrote that when I was really creative one time... mpf, comment + subscribe ~