*I’ve changed Suzy’s character to Eunji for plot reasons. Sorry Suzy stans, please forgive me.*

They arrived back at the apartment by the time the sun had begun to set. Sojin immediately put the groceries away in order to start on the ddukbokki.

Yura had already asked to be excused for a few hours to work on her summer homework. Her vacation came with a catch since students, teenagers especially, were usually enrolled in some kind of summer program. She was in the zone with her earbuds plugged in, rocking to the latest VIXX album of course, as she sat near her youngest sister.

Hyeri was sprawled out on the couch, totally knocked out from the day’s activities. Her light snoring was partially why Yura needed the music to focus. Their last meal was a few hours prior so Sojin assumed she wouldn’t be able to function until dinner was served.

She was preparing the pot of water when a timid voice made itself known to her.

“Sojin unnie?”

“Deh, Minah?” Sojin wiped her hands on her apron as she turned to look at Minah questionally.

“Can I help you make dinner?”

Sojin’s face brightened at the request. “Of course.” Turning off the faucet, Sojin beckoned her to come closer. “I could definitely use an extra helper. How are your cooking skills?”

Minah shuffled over to the sink to thoroughly wash her hands. “My mom only started teaching me recently, since Yura unnie is kind of lazy, but I like doing it. She says I'm good with a knife.”

“Great, you can wash and chop the green onions then.” After Sojin searched through her cupboards for a cutting board and knife, the two of them fell into a silence as they each did their own thing.

Minah glanced over at Sojin who was focused on mixing the sauce. She bit her lip as she thought about how to approach Sojin. Being the quietest of her sisters, she had a hard time making conversation out of the blue. Something she seemed to have in common with Sojin.

This was only their second day of knowing Sojin, but from what Minah could tell, she was really, really nice. The younger could not stop replaying the older's napkin gesture at the cafe. It was her first real interaction with Sojin. Hyeri was lucky enough to spend half the day with her.

Minah wanted to become close to Sojin too.

"Modu hal mareul ilhji like you~"

The soft notes of the song was the first to break the silence in the air. Placing her knife down mid-green onion, Minah perked up to watch Sojin. The unnie was swaying her hips lightly as she stirred the food, all the while singing the lyrics to View by SHINee.

Her instincts didn't allow Minah to think. She simply felt and joined in on the song.

When Sojin realized her solo had suddenly turned into a duet, she sung louder. Her eyes sparkled when she made eye contact with Minah. Their voices complemented each other like butter on toast. While one smoothly reached the higher notes, the other's slightly huskier voice rounded out the performance.

"Neomu areumdaun-daun-daun-daun view~" Sojin passed a wooden spoon to Minah and stopped stirring the ddukbokki with the large chopsticks. They faced each other with their makeshift microphones and continued to belt out the song, showing off their moves to the beat.

While their singing was definitely off the charts, their dancing...wasn't. Regardless, no one was there to judge them so they simply danced like crazy. Dinner was put on hold for the newly formed mackerel dance.

"Soriui saekgwa moyang bon geosdo~" When the spontaneous performance finally came to an end, Sojin and Minah had tears leaking from all the laughing that they had added to their rendition of View.

“You like SHINee?” Minah managed to sputter.  

“They’re my guilty pleasure,” Sojin admitted. She resumed stirring the sauce to hide her embarrassment. “But enough about that.” Sojin tossed a glance at Minah. “Where’d you learn to sing like that? Your voice is absolutely amazing.”

Now it was Minah’s turn to be embarrassed. With pinkening cheeks, she responded, “I usually only practice in the shower ‒ when no one is around.”

“Have you ever thought about joining the school choir?”

Minah shook her head sadly. “There’s this girl in my class, Minyoung, who's also the president of the choir club. I beat her for the lead role of Dorothy in the 4th grade and she’s hated me ever since. Singing in choir has never crossed my mind since then.”

Minah was so focused on the green onions that she didn’t notice Sojin’s tightened grip on the chopsticks. Too many times had petty girls bothered her in school for her underprivileged status. “Yura unnie tried to get me to join the dance club with her but dancing was never my thing.” The girl chuckled, “You probably noticed that earlier.”

“At your age, I desperately wanted to be in choir but never bothered because I was shuffled around so often.” Suddenly Sojin paused, narrowing her eyes before slamming the chopsticks on the counter. She harshly turned to a slightly frightened Minah. “You know what? Screw Minnie, she must be blind. You have a talent that shouldn’t be wasted just because of someone’s jealousy. Join choir!”

“Okay,” Minah squeaked automatically.

Sojin calmed down enough to explain, “Life is too short to allow fear to ruin your passions. I want ‒ just, do what you love, okay?”

Minah nodded understandably, toeing at the floor. Sojin was slightly guilty for chiding her but she hoped it would serve a positive purpose for the future.

“Good. On another note, do you listen to Boy’s Night? Their songs just speak to me, ya know?” She pretended to swoon, clutching her chest and using her other hand to fan herself. It gave the desire effect by causing Minah to laugh.

Conversation flowed easily afterwards over their favorite kpop groups and songs. Minah unnie for gushing more about idols than Minah herself despite her age. Sojin, sensitive of her older years, splashed water on Minah just to prove how young she still was. Lots of shrieking and laughter were exchanged and in no time, the ddukbokki was steaming and ready to eat.

Sojin woke up to the buzzing that was her phone. A quick squint at the time showed it was barely 8 in the morning. Mentally cursing at the person on the other end of the line, she tapped the green answer button.

“...’lo?”

“SOJIN I NEED YOUR HELP.”

Sojin didn’t even bat an eye. She was used to Eunji’s loud personality by now. “What’s wrong?”

“So you know that guy I mentioned last week? Wongeun? He finally asked me out!!” Her high pitched squealing did cause Sojin to flinch a little though. It should have been illegal for someone to be that happy so early in the day.

“Okay, okay. Explain why you need me again? Slowly with no shrieking, please.”

“C’mon, Sojin. Do you know anything about the girl code?” Gracefully ignoring Sojin’s ‘no’, the girl continued, “I’ve only known him for a week. He might be nice but he could be a serial killer for all I know. You gotta third wheel this date for me. I will start the shrieking if you say no again.”

Sojin groaned out loud, cradling the phone and her head at the same time. “Eunji...I have to‒”

“Pleeeease! I hate to do this but you owe me, remember? I even called you last because I know you don’t like to do these things but all my other gal pals bailed on me and you’re all I have left and I never tell you enough but I love you so, so, so‒”

“Eunji!”

“...yes?” Sojin could practically see the knowing grin on her friend's face.

“Fine.”

“Eep! Oops, I mean,” Eunji coughed, “You’re the best, Jin. Meet me at the coffee shop near the company at 11. I’ll treat you to whatever you want! See you, thank you, love you!”

“See you…” Sojin stared at the phone in her hand and chuckled. Eunji was quirky and pestered Sojin to no end about trivial nonsense. Nevertheless, she was a good friend. Especially when she made sure Sojin didn’t hermit away at home to Kdramas every weekend like she wanted.

Sojin startled at the word home. Or more like at the three other humans who were in her home. Remembering why she was so hesitant to say yes to Eunji at first, Sojin had to find someone to take care of the Kims while she was out. She definitely was not worried about them demolishing her apartment or stealing her belongings ‒ she trusted them. However, Sojin knew they’d get bored of the small space that was her residence. Seoul could be a dangerous city for minor girls and she wanted someone to take care of them in her place.

The name of the perfect candidate popped into her head. And Sojin groaned again.

You’ll definitely regret this later, Sojin thought but was forced to push it away. She had no choice in the matter.

She knocked on her neighbor’s door and waited. One minute passed. And then another. Finally, a muffled guffaw could be heard behind the door before it fully opened.

"Hi, noona," the man smirked. "Are you here to finally ask me out?"

Smothering the annoyance that spiked in her blood, Sojin reminded herself that Cha Hakyeon was doing her a favor.

“Never. I actually came here because I‒,” Sojin paused. This was her last chance to back out. A glance at her apartment door convinced her otherwise yet again. Unfortunately. “Because I need your help,” she said defeatedly.

Hakyeon leaned against the door frame and casually crossed his arms, smirking that smirk he always flashed her back in college when she was a senior and he was a junior. He had crossed so many lines with the sunbae/hoobae dynamic and was probably the primary reason for her dread of a class for a whole semester. A math class at that ‒ a subject she excelled in. No matter how fast she would book it out of the room, Hakyeon would be right on her tail, talking about parties and other social college aspects Sojin never had an interest in.

His persistence in befriending her and making Sojin his “girl” was unimaginable.

Imagine when she found out he was her neighbor.

With pretty much no way to pretend Hakyeon didn’t exist, Sojin finally caved and didn’t push him away when he walked her to her next class or sat next to her in the library. When he wasn't bugging her with pointless gossip of their classmates, he would quietly, and thankfully, be reading his Detective Conan comics.

Sometimes when she would spare a moment to look up from her textbook to see him on the verge of sleep, cheek resting on his fist as his blinks got slower and slower, Sojin was grateful to have him by her side in a school full of strangers.

Sometimes.

In cases, like the present, he usually said stupid things like, “To melt your heart with my charming good looks? I’ll help you all day, every day if that’s what you’re talking about.”

Sojin gave him a pointed stare, warning him to cut it out before she called the landlord to complain (something she had done a time or two before), and explained, “Eunji wants me to third wheel her date with this Wongeun guy she met recently and I need you to watch over three girls ‒ long story ‒ while I’m out. They’re well behaved and I’ll only be gone for a few hours. So...please?”

“Wongeun?”

Now it was Sojin’s turn to cross her arms. “Seriously? From that whole spiel I just gave, you’re stuck on the guy’s name?”

Hakyeon shrugged, but there was a glint in his eyes that Sojin didn’t even bother to question. He almost always wore a mischievous gaze and Sojin was running late already.

“You’re the only one I can ask. Please?”

With no hesitation on his part, “Anything for you.”

A/N: Happy Lunar New Year's! Not only that, there is another cause for celebration... *drum rolls*... happy stanniversery to me! It's been exactly a year since I've fallen in love with Girl's Day and I have absolutely no regrets. How can one hate a group when they so obviously love each other and their fans? This is the longest I've ever stanned a group with my average interest of 3-4 months. As the wise Yura once stated, "There's no way out once you start liking us." Looks like I'm in it for the long run. :) 

Also, Hayeon has finally been introduced! Thanks to all those who have waited so long.

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