May 7, 1998

"No girls allowed!"

Lee Yoonmi glared at the door of Baekhyun's room being shut with a pout, her hands on her hips and her nose scunched up. The familiar surface of the white door stood shut right in front of her nose.

Oh, the countless times she had had to stand in this very spot, staring at this very door, feeling the same bitter feeling of being left out whenever the guys played video games.

Yoonmi made a face at the door and glared at it as hard as she could. And who knew a five year-old could think such violent thoughts about a simple door?

The small, brown-haired girl took a deep breath, and everyone in the entire neighborhood would've known what was coming.

"I'M TELLING AUNTIE."

"GO AHEAD," Baekhyun's voice called from the other side. A series of snickers from the eleven other guys Yoonmi equally despised at the moment were heard. Once again, the poor girl's mind was disturbed with morbid images of kicking a specific body part of each of the twelve guys.

She huffed to herself.

"Why can't I play video games?!"

She kicked the door she hated so much with a sharp movement of the leg, and only God knew what great impact that made for a girl her size and age.

"You guys are so mean! Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't play with you!"

"Girls can't play video games, you babo. Now go and play with your barbie dolls!"

"I'm telling Auntie you called me a babo, oppa!"

There was no answer from the other side. Yoonmi fumed to herself and kicked the door once more.

"I HATE YOU GUYS!"

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"I LOVE YOU GUYS!"

Yoonmi beamed at the tiny tadpole swimming around in the white box, having been caught from the lake. Nothing could've been brighter than the light that seemed to radiate off of her face at that very moment. The happy girl looked up at the twelve other guys.

"How'd you guys catch it?!"

"It was ME who caught it!" Chanyeol puffed his chest out. But his moment of pride was ruined almost immediately, when Suho rolled his eyes and wacked the side of his head.

"Don't lie. It was all Baekhyun. Even if you tried, you'd probably trip and get a concussion the moment you step on a rock, let alone jump onto a another."

Lay blinked from behind him. "What's a concussion.." He muttered quietly, voicing out loud what was on everyone else's mind that moment.

"But it was ME who thought of catching one for you in the first place, Yoonmi!" Kai grinned proudly.

"Oh, shut up. I actually AGREED on your idea, which is the most important." Kris retorted.

"But I brought the box!"

"Well I actually AGREED on--"

"And I cleaned it!"

"I actually AGREED--"

As the guys carried on such a conversation that no normal group of nine year-olds would be able to do, Yoonmi stared at the tadpole with admiration, having shut out the rest of the voices in the background a long time ago. She grinned at the small creature with fascination, too focused to notice Baekhyun creeping up beside her with his hands suspiciously behind his back.

"Do you like the tadpole?" He asked.

"Mmhm." Yoonmi nodded without looking over at him.

"Do you like animals?"

"Mmhm."

He creepily smiled.

"Then maybe you'll like THIS!"

The next moment, a huge, black, creepy-looking spider covered in slimy moss was brought in front of Yoonmi's nose.

And only God knew what kind of chaos broke that second. Because for a five year-old, Lee Yoonmi had a very high range of vocal chords.

"I HATE YOU OPPA!"

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Every year, the Lee family would throw a spirited party around the end of the summer to mark the start of the children's school year. Since the city was small and everyone knew everyone else, almost all the people Yoonmi's family knew were invited... Including the Baekhyun and the guys of course.

"Soojin!"

"Oh! Minjung, you're here!"

Yoonmi glanced at her mother rushing over to greet the Byun family coming into the kitchen with gifts and food. The kitchen was full of different meals and snacks here and there, which, of course, everyone knew would taste as wonderful as it looked. Yoonmi's mother was known for her amazing cooking abilities, and Baekhyun especially was her number one fan.

"Auntie! I'm here!" Baekhyun made a beeline for Yoonmi's mother. She laughed and gave the nine year-old a big hug, handing over a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie much to his delight.

Yoonmi frowned at them. She could've sworn her mother had said 'No cookies until after eating dinner' to her just a few minutes ago. But there she was, giving Baekhyun a cookie right in front of Yoonmi's face.

Yoonmi huffed, a hundred percent sure that it was because Baekhyun was older. Older people got to do everything. Heck, they probably got to eat an entire double chocolate cake before dinner.

Yoonmi was still in the middle of sulking over this concept when Baekhyun's mother came in the kitchen, clucking her tongue.

"He'll become a bear if you continue giving him all these cookies, Soojin."

"A Baekhyun bear? That's completely fine with me. The men are in the backyard cooking the barbecue. We'll be all set up once we set the tables up... Speaking of which, what's that in your hands?"

Yoonmi trailed her eyes to the numerous bags of gifts in Baekhyun's mother's hands. Immediately, her eyes lit up and she raced towards them in full speed.

"Auntie!"

"Yoonmi! Wow, you're growing so tall already!"

The little girl grinned cheekily as Baekhyun's mother took out a lollipop from one of her bags and handed it over to her. From the corner of her eye, she could see Baekhyun frowning at this in displeasure, much to her delight. With a loud 'pop' in from the lollipop, Yoonmi skipped away into the backyard giddily, leaving Baekhyun sulking to himself with a finished cookie.

But then, of course something like this between the two wouldn't end without revenge.

"I heard lollipops give you black demons inside your teeth."

Yoonmi flipped around to see Baekhyun whispering to her darkly with a frown.

"What?"

"I said, that if you take one more from that lollipop, black demons are going to form on your teeth right away," The boy said with such a serious face, that Yoonmi couldn't help but feel a shiver down her neck.

She quickly cleared and forced out a laugh.

"That's silly! Lollipops are sweet and good. They wouldn't do that to your teeth."

"Then how would you explain how your mom always tells you to not eat too much candy? It's because she knows. Too much lollipops can cause a whole army of black demons!" His hands made a gigantic circle, portraying how big of an 'army' it would be.

Yoonmi lightly scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Y-Yeah, right. You're just trying to scare me, Oppa." Yet, she didn't put her lollipop in this time. At this, Baekhyun smiled in secret, knowing that he was getting her slowly.

"I'm telling you, it's true! Maybe not right away, but later at night, when everything is completely dark, you'll feel the first pinch in your teeth--That's the commander of the black demons sticking his pitchfork into your tooth. Then one by one, the rest of the black demons will start sticking their pitchforks into your teeth... Until your mouth is so full of them that you can't even speak! They'll start dripping out of your mouth, onto your bed, and all around your room. Even inside your closet! By the next morning, your entire house will be FULL of black demons.... And I heard, if you accidentally swallow even ONE of them--"

He leaned in even closer to her in a creepy, dark tone.

"--You'll die."

"AHHHHHH!"

Baekhyun burst out laughing when Yoonmi threw her lollipop across the entire backyard towards the fathers. He laughed even harder when it landed on a hamburger steak Yoonmi's father was grilling.

Yoonmi's father widened his eyes in surprise. "What the heck?!"

Once she realized that Baekhyun had been making all this up, Yoonmi felt a dangerous sea of fire rising up her chest. But before she could burst from it, another wave of emotion reached her first.

Before long, her lower lip started quivering.

Baekhyun immediately stopped laughing, and widened his eyes at the sudden image of a eye-watery Yoonmi. Quickly, he ran up to her and stared at her with humongous eyes, starting to feel a bit panicky.

"Y-Yoonmi? Are you okay? I didn't mean it... It was all just a joke! Black demons don't exist. Please don't cry..."

"But what if they DO?! They'll haunt me forever and forever, and I'll never be able to sleep at night--"

"They don't exist, Yoonmi, and I know that for real!"

".... You sure?"

"Mmhm. A hundred percent, completely sure."

Yoonmi gave a small sniffle.

"... Okay, then."

How funny the sight was, with a nine-year-old boy comforting a five-year-old girl he himself had just purposely scared.

But like the strong little girl she was, not a single tear had dropped for Yoonmi to start acting like her normal self again, shooting immature insults back and forth with Baekhyun. And it wasn't long until the rest of the guests started to arrive one by one through Yoonmi's door. Each doorbell rung brought in either one or two energetic kids and smiling parents with gifts in their hands. Each guest was welcomed with a friendly hug or a shake of hands, for Yoonmi's mother was a very bright and youthful woman.

In no time, the entire backyard was full of talkative grown-ups, happily exchanging funny stories or conversing about the latest news about the economy. The kids, overflowing with energy, exceeded a large amount, with all twelve guys running about making noise as large as what twenty-four kids would've made.

The other kids were the typical neighborhood friends that knew each other and Yoonmi well, as the entire community was small.

"Hi, Yoonmi!"

"Hi, Naeun!"

"Annyeong, Yoonmi!"

"Great to see you, Dasom!"

"Hey, Yoonmi~"

"Annyeong, Soojung and Jessica unni!"

"ANNYEONG, BAEKHYUN-OPPA!" A short, cutesy girl with short black hair and a big red bow on her head squealed the second Yoonmi opened the door for her.

Yoonmi watched Minah run straight for Baekhyun with a blank, annoyed face. Sure, she was young and didn't know much of mature decorum, but wasn't it a basic to greet the HOST of a party instead of sprinting straight to the guy with a good-looking face?!

"H-Hey, Minah.." Baekhyun scootched a bit away from the touchy girl, a bit embarrased at the suddenness of it all. Yoonmi softly snickered, somehow finding this funny.

And of course, the eleven guys Yoonmi knew all-so-well came too.

"ANNYEONG YOONMI." They all chorused at the top of their lungs. It had become a habit for them to yell as loud as they could just to make their voice stand out amongst the rest of the guys. And eleven kids shouting the same thing in a volume like that... the whole neighborhood would know right away that the Lee's End of the Summer Party had begun.

Because it had.

"RACE YOU TO THE STAIRS!"

"No! That's MY doll! I chose it first!"

"Guys guys guys let's play family! I call being the dog!"

"PILLOW FIGHT!"

The party went on just like how it had been from the beginning, with the girls gathering around the dollhouse and a group of guys creeping up to scare them. Then there was the video-game clique, and the 'Let's play pretend' group. And of course, last but not least, there were the three or four guys simply running around the entire house yelling things no once really could translate.

Yoonmi, unlike the other girls, joined the adults in the backyard, followed by her closest friend Sulli. The two, being well-taught in manners, greeted the adults before venturing out deeper into the backyard, where there was a magnificent view of the beach under and a beautiful garden of summer flowers.

"Look! It's a butterfly!"

Looking like two little girls, Yoonmi and Sulli couldn't help but be captivated at the butterfly's pretty, pinkish wings. Their huge eyes sticked to the butterfly, with their small mouths slightly open in awe of the insect.

Yoonmi looked at Sulli.

"Let's trap it."

And just like that, the two girls' eyes of awe and love changed to eyes of ambition and excitement as they jumped up and down for the butterfly with nets in their hands.

They were too busy catching the butterfly to notice the two shadows creep up behind them.

"BOO!"

"AHHHHH!"

The two girls jumped back onto the ground, their eyes wide in shock. And of course there was a Baekhyun and Chanyeol doubling over in laughter, feeling the amusing joy of making a girl scream that all other nine-year-old boys felt.

Sulli, being a bit quicker than Yoonmi to recover, shot a dirty look at the two guys.

"It's not funny!"

"IT IS!" Chanyeol cackled.

Yoonmi glared at the two, her famous 'mean pout' forming again. But instead of taking a deep breath and yelling 'I'M TELLING AUNTIE', the girl suddenly gave a dangerous smirk with a newly formed idea in her head. She quickly looked at Sulli, and just like that, the two girls knew what to do.

Because after all, young kids always knew how to serve revenge cooked just right.

"GOT IT." Out of nowhere, Yoonmi swiped her net over a huge, black bumblebee without a blink of her eye. Baekhyun immediately stopped laughing and stared at her and the net with wide eyes, elbowing Chanyeol to get him to look. Sulli grinned at the sudden change of atmosphere and puffed her chest up.

"LET'S GET'EM."

The party's highlight ended up being Yoonmi and Sulli sprinting full-speed after Baekhyun and Chanyeol, a net with a very angry bumblebee in their hands. The other of the twelve guys laughed at the two, being boys who mocked their friends instead of girls who comforted them. Of course this made Yoonmi feel like the queen of the world, feeling a swell of pride for being able to get back at an oppa like that.... As immature as it was.

But what she didn't know was that a quiet, brown-haired boy was keeping his gaze on her intently the entire time, without saying a single world.

Maybe if she had looked a bit more to the left, just a few inches more, then the story would've been different.

Much, much different.

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