The rest of the week was a blur to Soori as well as everybody else.

To recap: Mark had continued flirting with other girls but became sweet when it came to Soori, Jinhee fell more in love with Jaebum, Bambam fell more for Serah, and everyone else had just started to get along better.

Theater was still the best part, at least in Soori’s mind it was.

And still the worst part for her was dealing with Mark's flirty ways. There were times where she would hate him and scowl whenever he made a flirty remark, however now there were more times when Mark's sweet words would have a way with Soori's heart.

Unfortunately for Mark, Soori still hated him.

As for everyone else, there was no such thing as the best part. Though Bambam enjoyed ROTC for the fact that he was able to hang out with Serah. Jinhee loved biology and history since she could be with Jaebum. For the rest of the gang, the best part – if they had to choose one – was lunch.

However, now it was Saturday morning. Soori happily ate a bowl of cereal at nine in the morning, humming softly to herself.

She was home alone right now. Her mom went out to take her uncle to do errands and then send him to work, and her brother was at his job.

All she wanted to do was sleep, but her mother forced her up. Later on they were supposed to go to Soori’s cousin’s house, but her mother was forcing her to go early.

--

“Why do I have to go early?” Soori whined, pulling the blankets back over her head.

“Because, your aunt is having her birthday party, she’ll be inviting her friends and their families, so you need to help her prepare. I can’t go because I have my own errands to run,” her mother quickly explained before tugging the blankets back off of Soori’s body, who whined more in response.

Being dressed in merely a tank top and shorts and suddenly having the warmth tugged away from you wasn’t exactly an ideal way to wake up in the morning.

--

The girl sighed as she finished her cereal. It was Saturday and she was up at nine. It was too early.

Stretching her arms, the girl made her way to the shower after washing her bowl. She quickly got ready and did a quick sweep of the house to make sure everything was clean. Once she was satisfied she grabbed her phone and house keys and left the house, locking the gate behind her.

“Hey Soori!” Moonhyun’s voice called out.

Soori whipped her head to the direction of his voice. Moonhyun was with Woobin, Jackson, Jimin, Jinyoung, and Bambam.

With a small smile, she waved at them. “Hey guys.”

“Where are you off to this morning?” Jinyoung asked.

“My cousin’s. And you guys?”

“We’re going to the park. Do you wanna spend a few minutes with us? You don’t need to be there right this second do you?” Jimin tilted his head.

Soori could have melted. She knew she only liked Jimin because he was cute and nice and she knew he was secretly a player, but he always had this effect on her.

She shrugged and looked away from Jimin before her face started heating up. “My aunt needs help with cleaning around the house and cooking food. It’s her birthday; I’d rather not leave her to do these errands on her own.”

“Well… Can you text Serah for us real quick?” Woobin asked, subtly nudging Bambam, who tensed at the mention of her name.

“Serah? What for? You have her number,” Soori raised an eyebrow.

Woobin sighed, “She won’t reply to me. Anyway, she was supposed to hang out with us this morning.”

Soori shrugged, easily falling for Woobin’s white lie. Taking out her phone, she sent a text to Serah.

Soori: Hey bish text Woobin

Serah: Hey why?

Soori: He said you were supposed to hang out with them this morning

Serah: Who’s them?

Soori: Moonhyun, Jimin, Jinyoung, Bambam, Jackson, and Woobin

Serah: …I never agreed to that

Soori shot a look over to Woobin. “Why’d you lie?”

Woobin grinned, “I needed someone who Bambam wouldn’t hurt to do it.”

Her eyebrow rose as she looked at Bambam. “Woobin. You are twice if not three times the size of Bambam.”

“Maybe but this guy has energy. He tired me out earlier,” Woobin frowned.

“Well I’m confused still.”

“Bambam likes Serah,” Jinyoung quickly explained.

“Oh okay.”

Soori didn’t even bother to question it before she looked back down at her phone.

Soori: Whatever. Just go meet them up over at the park nearby the café

Serah: Um… Okay then. Are you going to be there?

Soori: Nah

Serah: Then why’d you tell me?

Soori: Long story. See you around!

Serah: Well okay then. Later !

“Well, she’s on her way to the park, I’ll see you guys later!” Soori grinned and walked past them.

“Hey Soori, I’ll walk you over there if you want.” Soori froze. It was Jimin who offered.

She turned back to face him, “Nah it’s alright. Just go with the other guys.” She was trying hard to act normal.

Jimin smiled and shook his head, tugging on her arm, “Let’s go. I’ll catch up with you guys later!” He called back to the other guys, who simply shrugged in response.

Soori gave a look to Moonhyun, asking for help, but he just smirked and shook his head before walking off with the others.

Soori subtly glared at her friend’s back before turning back around to walk with Jimin to her aunt’s house. It was silent between them, and Soori was beginning to feel uncomfortable with it. Every now and then she was glance over at Jimin, but for the most part her eyes stayed glued to the floor.

When she was finally about to speak up, Jimin said something, “Are you going to keep subtly checking me out?” he had that teasing, mocking voice that Soori would normally hate, but this time she couldn’t seem to hate it. She tensed and almost froze but quickly snapped out of it.

“I’m not checking you out!”

“You sure? Then why do you keep glancing over at me huh?” he smirked at her.

She scoffed, trying to hide a blush as she looked away, “Shut up.”

“Aawww Soori don’t be that way,” he cooed before wrapping an arm around her.

Soori swore she had died at the moment then came back to Earth.

“Get your arm off of me!” she quickly said.

“What? Why?” he pretended to whine and complain.

She just shook her head as she pulled his arm off of her shoulders.

“Aawww, Soori why are you acting this way?” he cooed lightly while playfully nudging her.

“When did you get so touchy?” the girl laughed, nudging him back, not realizing that they had already reached her cousin’s house.

“Soori!” her cousin, Samuel, called out as he walked out of the front door.

“Hey Samuel!” Jimin grinned.

“Hey Jimin,” Samuel smiled back. “What are you doing here?”

Jimin wrapped his arm around Soori again, “Walking your beautiful cousin over here of course.”

Soori quickly cleared , feeling the rush of heat going to her face. “Ahem. Um. Yeah I’m gonna go now.” And with that, she was away from the two men, and inside the house.

Jimin and Samuel both chuckled lightly at the girl. Of course, they were both aware of the slight crush she had on Jimin. Then again, who wasn’t aware of that fact?

Samuel shook his head as he looked at Jimin, “You gotta stop playing with my cousin’s feelings.”

Jimin smiled softly while he looked at the cousin, “Who said I’m playing with them?”

“You did, remember?” Samuel chuckled.

“That was a long time ago. Things have changed,” Jimin replied.

Samuel raised an eyebrow, “Don’t tell me you have feelings for her all of a sudden.”

“I might, who knows,” Jimin chuckled lightly before turning away from Samuel, “I need to head back over to the guys now. Later!”

~

Soori tried calming herself down before she came face to face with her aunt. She smiled widely at her and gave a polite bow.

“Hi auntie!” she greeted politely.

“Oh, Soori. I’m glad you could help me today! Could you start with sweeping up my living room please? My friends and their families are already supposed to be arriving in an hour…” she sighed.

“Of course auntie! Leave it to me!” Soori grinned and immediately got to work.

Barely ten minutes had passed before Soori was positive that the floor was spotless and not a speck of dust was visible to even a telescope.

When her aunt had walked out, she nearly gasped. Never had she seen her floors so clean. “Thank you Soori! Could you clean the bathroom next? I think I just need to take out the trash and clean out the sink.”

“As you wish!” Soori smiled and hurried over to the bathroom, humming as she took out the trash and started cleaning the sink.

After five minutes of cleaning the sink, Soori decided to go ahead and wash down the mirrors and the toilet itself. That took up another ten minutes and Soori hummed as she quickly washed her hands before walking out of the bathroom. Only now did it occur that Samuel never did come back in and her aunt’s other two children were missing.

“Hey auntie, where’s Samuel, Von and Ilyana Unnie?” she asked when she saw her aunt again.

“Samuel’s buying some snacks, Von and Ilyana are getting the cake,” her aunt quickly replied before continuing to run around, cooking foods along with a few other aunts and uncles.

Soori nodded in response before looking around, humming as she thought of something else she could clean. She walked upstairs to the loft, tidying that place up a bit before heading in to the bedroom’s, tidying each one up and deciding on actually cleaning Von’s room. She picked Von’s room to vacuum and dust since it seemed the dirtiest and she knew that’s where the younger kids would be spending their time, everyone else was more than likely going to be in the loft or living room.

By the time Soori had finished, the doorbell rang.

“Soori could you get that please!” her aunt called out.

“Yes ma’am!” Soori replied as she rushed back down the stairs to open the door, immediately bowing to the smiling family.

“Hello!” they greeted.

“Hello,” Soori politely greeted back as she stepped aside to let them in, suddenly remembering to grab the house slippers for everyone.

It continued on like this for the next hour. Soori would go back to tidying the rooms upstairs, the doorbell would ring, she’d go down to answer it, greet the families, and let them into the house, helping them become comfortable and get everyone situated.

Soori thanked the Lord when Samuel had finally came back along with Von and Ilyana. The guests were starting to grow hungry due to the potent smells coming from the kitchen.

The girl hurriedly filled trays with some of the chips and other snacks that Samuel had bought while Von and Ilyana got to work on getting activities ready. They set up mahjong tables for the adults and other tables in case some of the men wished to play poker or blackjack, then in the loft they set up the XBOX, Wii, PS4, and any other game console they had for the kids.

After about an hour more, the other cousins started to arrive.

At that point, Soori immediately went to babysit her baby nephew, Liam. He was her favorite out of all the elder cousins’ children. He was barely one, and he was the sweetest baby. He almost never cried, and was just the cutest guy ever.

She giggled softly while she played with him, cooing softly to him and nuzzling her nose against his while grinning widely.

“Sandra, is everyone here already?” Soori heard her mother ask her aunt.

“Hmm… Hold on…” she replied, looking over at all the adults. After a couple minutes, she looked back at Soori’s mom and shook her head. “We’re missing the Tuans.”

Tuan… Wait I know that name...

Soori quickly shook the thought of her head before heading upstairs with Liam still in her arms. She took a seat beside her friend, Eunhee. Eunhee was the sister of Liam’s mother; Eunhee could also be described as Soori’s twin, only that Eunhee was shorter and their hairstyles were different.

“So how’s your little freshman life?” Eunhee grinned. One more thing, Eunhee was a year older than Soori.

“Terrible,” Soori chuckled, holding Liam close to her as the two girls sat on the couch, watching the other cousins (who were mainly boys) play games.

“Aawww, what’s the matter freshie?” she cooed.

“Shut up short stuff,” Soori warned, laughing softly.

“Oh you,” Eunhee rolled her eyes.

The younger girl gasped and quickly cradled Liam in her arms, “There are children here!”

“He can barely understand me. His own dad taught him how to do the middle finger!” Eunhee laughed.

“And we are not tainting him anymore than he already is,” Soori nodded firmly and giggled a little as Liam started pulling on her hair. She was thankful that Liam’s tug wasn’t as painful as it could have been.

She cooed lightly to him, “Liam~ What are you doing baby boy? Don’t pull on auntie’s hair, that’s not nice~ Pull on her hair instead!” she grinned, gesturing towards Eunhee.

“Um. Excuse you!” Eunhee laughed as she flicked Soori’s forehead.

She giggled even more, slowly and carefully pulling her hair away from Liam’s grasp. And instead, he grabbed at her necklace. With a small sigh of defeat, Soori quickly moved her necklace out of the way and gave her hair back to the baby.

Then the doorbell rang, signaling the last of the guests. The Tuans.

Soori hurried over to answer the door, still with Liam in her arms. She gave a small nod instead of a bow since she couldn’t bow politely with the baby. The family bowed back, giving her a polite grin. All except for one. Soori’s eyes widened for a moment and then she cursed herself, she finally remembered the name.

Mark. Tuan.

~~~~~~

So I have this problem called school and it's causing me a lot of headaches and lots of oversleeping and everything and it's like the last 5 weeks of school and my English teacher decided to give me 3 different projects all due like the same flipping week and I think I'm gonna cry.

So a quick little update before I go off and die from all these assignments.

Comment Replies~

khayjun-ko - Hehe sorry I didn't update all too soon...

Kim_Hyojin_Sweethear - Soori would kick his either way don't you think?

thelillcat - LOOOOOOOOL. I can actually really picture this right now but my plans for when Soori beats up Mark are a little different than a boxing match~ c:

pinkypn - You know, I'm growing to love how you can honestly say how much you hate one thing and all. And I promise that wasn't sarcasm, I like hearing negatives sometimes~