“Those es ditched us,” Soori sighed in exasperation after she was sure that she and Mark had looked everywhere for their friends.

“Woah. Language young lady,” Mark chuckled.

“Don’t tell me to watch my language it never helps,” she shook her head.

“Alright… So what should we do now?” Mark asked.

“I’m gonna go home,” came Soori’s reply as she her heel, exiting the café to head home.

“Wait!” Mark chased after her.

“What?”

“Let me walk you home.”

“I don’t want you to.”

Soori turned again and continued on her way, well aware that Mark was still following.

“I’m walking you home,” he stated.

“Why?”

“So I can find out where you live.”

The girl slowly turned her gaze towards him, her eyes scrutinizing his figure.

“What?” he asked innocently.

“You sound like some creep,” she scoffed and shook her head.

“By your definition I’m probably some ual creep. Like a e. Except we’re the same age.”

“What’s surprising is that’s actually exactly what I think about you.”

“I swear I’m not that bad!”

Soori gave him a look, “Even your friends wouldn’t defend you on that one.”

“That’s just how we are. The only time we ever defend each other is when our life depends on it,” Mark shrugged.

“Oh how kind of you all,” she chuckled, turning the corner with Mark still following close behind.

“So how are you going to deal with your friends tomorrow?” Mark asked, quickly bringing up another subject after a silence had followed Soori’s last statement.

“I’ll probably scare them for dear life and make sure they don’t ever pull a stunt like that again. However, chances are they’re going to do it again anyway. I swear… Those kids… I feel like I’m already the mother of teenage children and they think they can just pull the same stunts on me over and over again,” Soori sighed.

Mark just chuckled as he stared at the girl. “Looks like I’ll be a proud father of an amount of people.”

“You’d be a terrible father,” Soori laughed, looking over at him.

“I’d be a great father! I’m amazing with kids!”

“You’d teach them to be a flirt!”

“I’d teach a boy how to treat a girl right and how to dump a girl right. I’d teach a girl how to with a man’s mind and make him want her more but he won’t be able to have her!” Mark rebutted.

“Wow, might as well just name you number one father of the year!”

“Aahhh, a well deserved award.”

Soori rolled her eyes, “Do you have siblings?”

“I have a younger brother and sister, an older sister, and I have a niece as well as a nephew from my cousins,” Mark answered, “And yourself?”

“I’ve got two older brothers, two nieces, and a nephew. If you want me to expand this over to my cousins as well I’d be listing people for decades,”

“That big of a family?”

“That much reproduction going around in our filled minds,” Soori answered with a hint of sarcasm.

Mark merely gave her a smirk in reply to her statement. “ filled minds eh?”

“Don’t even think about it,” Soori rolled her eyes.

“Too late, I’ve been thinking about it since the minute I met you,” Mark smirked.

Soori sighed, “Why does that not surprise me?”

“Because of our bet probably, remember, I’m winning that bet,” he winked.

The girl merely shook her head before coming to a halt when they had reached her house.

“You won’t win that bet, I’m going in now,” she said while unlocking the gate to her house, like there was any need to, anyone could easily reach in between the metal bars and open the gate from the other side, anyone could probably easily jump the fence as well.

“Alright… I’ll be remembering your address,” Mark grinned at the girl as they stood right outside the house.

“Don’t,” Soori stared at him.

“I will.”

“You’ll forget.”

“No I won’t.”

“Yeah sure whatever. I’m going in now. Have fun on your walk home. Trip over a rock or something, get injured, it might bring some joy to me if I see you tomorrow,” despite her serious her voice sounded, it was easy to tell she was just joking about everything she had just said.

“Aww why thanks babe. I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Mark replied sarcastically, waiting for Soori to be safe inside her house before walking off in the direction of his house.

~

As soon as Soori entered her house she made sure to go straight to her room. She noticed right away that her mother as well as her brother weren’t home, as usual. The only thing she could hope for was that her uncle was also absent from the household.

Soori lived with her brother, her mother, and her uncle. The eldest brother lived in the suburbs a good hour away from them, and her father lived in Japan. Everyone else was scattered over the world as far as she was concerned. The only family that mattered to her was the ones that lived nearby, and the ones in America, with a few exceptions.

Her uncle was one of these exceptions.

The hate Soori had for her uncle could not be explained simply by the word ‘hate.’ And she had plenty of reasons to abhor him. For starters, everything the family did when it came to that house revolved around him. If he was watching TV in the living room, no one else was allowed in there. If he wanted to fry fish then that’s what they were going to eat. No one else had a say if he voiced his opinions or wants.

There were several more reasons why Soori had hated him. However, there was just the fact that whenever her uncle was around, Soori's mood would immediately drop and she'd become annoyed with everything.

It started when she first caught him having an affair with another woman right in their living room. The very sight disgusted her. Although, all she really saw was her uncle flirting with the woman, she didn't need to stay for another minute to assume what probably happened next. Slowly but surely, the whole family was finding out about it, but he'd always come up with some stupid lie to cover up for himself. Unfortunately, whenever her uncle was home, that meant another woman would be found with him. Soori hated seeing that, because that meant she'd have to step back outside and go somewhere else unless she wanted to hear his disgusting voice flirting with the woman. 

To her luck, Soori found her uncle nowhere in the house. So she made her way to her room, dropping all her stuff and just collapsing on her bed. Suddenly, her phone exploded with an amount of text messages, all from her cousins.

Soori was a family favorite with practically everyone. They all loved her because she was all around personable. She never cared if someone else blamed her, she took the blame head-on without any complains (with the exception of when she was feeling moody/on her period).  She never cared if they had jokingly, or even non-jokingly, insulted her. What she did care about, was when they got insulted. And she always stood up for them.

She always played along with whatever they did and continued to smile. During movies, she was the one who’d remain silent. When they slept over at each other’s houses, everyone wanted to sleep with her because she never moved in her sleep – unless she was having a nightmare. She dealt with everything they did, made their problems her problems, and was always there for them. Though she couldn't be there for them all at the same time, she made sure to show all of them that she cared.

Despite all of that, her favorite family members were the ones who didn’t do always put the blame on her, the ones who didn't care to sleep with her during sleepovers, the ones who still saw Soori as the favorite, but not for the same reasons the other cousins loved her.

Soori more loved and looked up to her cousins in America. The two siblings that had practically raised her when Soori’s mother and brother weren’t around. Soori looked up to them, and everything she is today is because of them. There was the elder cousin, named Joanne, and her younger brother, named Kai.

With a small smile, Soori started to text back each of her family members.

~

When Mark reached home, he opened the door to an empty house.

But then again, his house was almost always empty.

It’s not like Mark lived alone, he had his younger siblings and his parents, it’s just that they were hardly ever home.

His younger siblings were out more often than he was, that always got on Mark’s nerves. His younger brother was an avid soccer player while the sister was more of a basketball girl. As for Mark, he loved sports, but since his siblings got into the picture, his parents didn’t have the time to keep up with Mark’s games as well as his siblings’ games.

Mark could care less whether or not his parents were actually at the games for him, as long as he could play, but his parents found other reasons to get Mark not to play.

“Games end late and we don’t want you walking home alone late at night!” “We can never be too sure that you’re secretly seeing a girl after those games!” “Maybe after those games you’ll go off and get drunk with your friends as a victory party!” “You have to continue to keep studying and keep up your grades!”

Soon, Mark just ended up thinking they wanted him to stop playing sports altogether. However, as soon as Mark gets his driver’s license, he’ll be back to join the basketball team and play again.

Sadly, Mark still has to wait at least six months until that can happen, so he’s stuck doing nothing in his house alone until seven, when his mom finally comes back with Mark’s siblings.

With a soft sight he whipped out his phone, for some reason he wanted to text Soori. But then he realized he didn’t have her number.

He scrolled around on his phone for a minute before deciding to stalk around and find other ways he could contact Soori, starting with her Instagram. A small smirk spreading on his face when he finally found it and as luck was on his side he also found her Snapchat, kik, and kakaotalk accounts in her profile description.

~

“So I forgot to ask, what happened during third period?” Jackson said, looking over at Jinyoung.

The group of friends that had ditched Soori and Mark decided to walk around the neighborhood, by all means necessary avoiding routes from the café to Soori’s house as well as the routes from the café to Mark’s house.

Jinyoung thought back to it and then shrugged, “I think Mark has serious feelings for Soori.”

“What? He’s barely known her a day!” Jinhee burst out.

“For the record you’ve known Jaebum at least an hour shorter than Soori and Mark have known each other, but look at you,” Serah chuckled, eyeing the couple. Jinhee grew red and instinctively took a step away from Jaebum, he had no objections.

Woobin brought everyone back to the original topic. “Why do you think Mark actually likes her?”

“He got… Protective of her,” Jinyoung explained.

“Protective?” The six boys who had known Mark for as long as they could remember had their eyebrows raised to their hairlines.

“Protective how?” Jimin questioned.

“I wanted to tease Mark a little bit, and I had Soori pretend to flirt with me… Mark yelled,” Jinyoung chuckled as he recalled the memory.

The others started to laugh until Woobin’s, Jinhee’s, Moonhyun’s, Serah’s, and Jimin’s phones all went off. They immediately knew who it was.

“Soori?” Jackson questioned as the friends chuckled, pulling out their phones.

Soori: YAH WHAT THE HELL YOU GUYS. WHO GAVE MARK MY SNAPCHAT, KIK, AND KAKAOTALK?

The friends all looked up at each other in surprise.

“What’s up?” Bambam asked, peeking over Serah’s shoulder since she was the closest. As he read the first message another one was sent.

Soori: ALSO WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE ME ALONE WITH HIM? I hate you all -.-

At that, everyone was left shaking their heads and chuckling softly.

“He got her Snapchat and everything… What a stalker,” Yugyeom chuckled lightly.

Jaebum laughed in agreement, “Yeah… I don’t think I can remember a day he’s gone to that extent.”

The group of friends just chuckled.

Jinhee: None of us gave him your contact . Also… We just wanted to give you guys some alone time that’s all. You’re welcome c;

Soori immediately replied.

Soori: . You. All. I’m not giving you your presents anymore.

Moonhyun: WAIT SOORI WAIT I WANT MY PRESENT T_T

Soori: TOO ING BAD

Soori: Are you guys still with Jackson and the others?

Jimin: Yeah

Woobin: Why?

Soori: Have them tell Mark to leave me alone please T_T

Moonhyun: ONLY IF YOU PROMISE TO GIVE US THE PRESENTS

Soori: Fine, I’ll just ignore him

Moonhyun: D: SOORIIIIIIIIIIII

A pout was permanent on the boy’s face as Soori didn’t text back.

“You know she’ll probably bring them anyway…” Woobin chuckled while shaking his head.

“She better!” Moonhyun whined, “She always gets the best souvenirs when she goes out!”

“They’re souvenirs… How great could they be?” Jackson asked.

“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND. SHE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT TO BUY FOR EVERYBODY ALL THE TIME!”

“I like lanyards; every time she travels she buys me one. I could bring a different lanyard every day of the month thanks to her,” Serah chuckled.

“I probably have a thousand rings thanks to her,” Jinhee smiled while she looked down at her ring covered fingers.

"I have a thousand hats because of that girl!" Moonhyun grinned.

The boys chuckled and nodded as they understood. “She must be an amazing friend,” Youngjae said.

“And rich…” Jaebum chuckled softly.

“Not really rich, when she goes traveling with her family, her cousins, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandfathers, and grandmothers pay for everything she does. Her plane ticket, the things she buys for herself, if they go to an amusement park, all Soori ever needs to bring is pocket money if they go to an arcade, then the rest of the money for her to buy souvenirs for us,” Serah explained.

“Why doesn’t she just get her family members to pay for her souvenirs then?” Jinyoung wondered.

Jinhee chuckled softly, “Soori seems like a … We know… But she would never think of having someone buy her something that she was going to give to someone else. If somebody buys her a gift, she treasures it. The only exception is when she’s donating old things to charity.”

“The sweetest little thing on Earth…” Jinyoung mumbled to himself before chuckling softly.

Moonhyun heard him. “That was her old nickname. Then one day, she was no longer the sweetest little thing on Earth. But there are some habits that she couldn’t get rid of. Such as cherishing gifts given to her by others.”

~

Mark had taken another selfie of him doing a cute pout putting a caption saying, “Yahhh reply!” before sending it to Soori.

A minute later he received a snapchat back with her flipping him off while her eyes looked like they could burn a hole through his soul. He gulped and decided to move to kik instead.

Mark Tuan: Soooooriiiiiiii

Jang Soori: You’re an annoyance

Mark Tuan: …Is that really what you think of me?

Jang Soori: Yes

Mark Tuan: Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabe

Jang Soori: Stop calling me that!

Mark Tuan: But baaaabe!!

Mark grinned as he sent the message, wanting to toy around with her a little bit.

Jang Soori: Hey Mark, tell me something

Mark Tuan: Anything baby c;

Jang Soori: What’s your death wish?

Mark Tuan: …

Mark Tuan: Harsh

Soori rolled her eyes and slipped her phone into her pocket as she went out to the kitchen, deciding to cook something for herself. After a minute of going back and forth between the pantry and the fridge, she finally decided on having plain eggs.

Mark Tuan: Fine. Ignore me then. See if I care

Mark Tuan: Soori I’m bored

Mark Tuan: Okay I’ll stop calling you babe just text me I’m bored!

Soori groaned in annoyance before grabbing her phone to text her friends instead.

This is the longest day of my life!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I almost feel bad for Soori.

Wow.

I torture my main character xD

Comment Replies~

Seungmii - Thank you! I love you too <3

thelillcat - Slowly but surely <3

Kim_Hyojin_Sweethear - Hahaha now wouldn't that be a cute scene to write out :3

yehet_shidae - I WILL GET THEM TOGETHER. It'll just take a while. ^_^

Yoshi16 - Updated <3

Ghadeer_love - I have updated ^_^