“Why did it end up like this?”

Minwoo muttered with a hint of rue and Junho who was his popsicle immediately turned his head towards his chubby friend, eyes as big as saucers he questioned him in disbelief.

“Yah, Min chubby, did I hear it wrong or you’re actually taking a pity on almighty Lee Jieun?”

Minwoo’s round face reddened as if he swallowed a whole load of chillies, he feigned nonchalance by pretending to be disgusted by Junho’s sloppy way of eating his ice cream.

“Don’t go around spitting while you’re eating! And I just felt that…it was unfair that she was being misunderstood like this.”

Apart from those who were close by to witness what had happened among Jieun, the trio, Naeun and Suho, the two of them happened to pass by on the way to basketball court were enthralled by what unfolded. Especially when Jieun successfully overthrew Sena who was at least two sizes bigger than her, their feet were planted on the ground as they looked onto what happened with great interest. Including how Naeun misunderstood Jieun, thinking that the latter had resorted to violence again when in fact it was the trio who started the whole thing. Nevertheless, not once Jieun made an attempt to explain and prove her innocence.

Minwoo thought back to how they passed by each other and unsurprisingly, Jieun did not recognize them, not even himself who had been slapped on the face by her. Not that he was large on the outside so that his heart was more generous than others, but Jieun’s face void of any expression scorched into his mind and a strong surge of loneliness shot up to his spine.

The kind of loneliness whereby no matter what, you are not trusted.

“Did you fail to grow back the dead brain cells from the spank she gave you? Did you forget the hand print on your face that was given by the very same person you’re giving pity party for?”

Unable to understand why Minwoo would even defend Lee Jieun who was the embodiment of evil, Junho pestered his friend and relentlessly reminding him about the slap he had received, as if trying to rile up his urge to avenge the girl that had been their centre of topic all the way they walked to the basketball court.

“Can you stop reminding me about the slap?”

Minwoo exclaimed in distress, of course the hard slap he had gotten did leave him a rather nasty memory, but he thought it was what he asked for.

“And, it was indeed our fault to speak of other’s mother in such manner…”

Before Minwoo could take a breath after muttering, a hand s to his neck and choked him. He turned incredulously at Junho’s sudden assault.

“You! Who are you? Where is the real Cho Minwoo?!”

Minwoo turned red at the tight grip at his neck and gasped words that were incoherent while his hands reached out to push his friend away frantically.

“What are you two doing?”

A hand intersected between the tangled bodies and easily separated the two. Minwoo rolled his eyes in exasperation when Junho continued with his exaggerated acting as he grasped on to the shirt of the newcomer.

“Luhan! This…this is not the Minwoo we know!”

Luhan’s eyebrow rose in amusement and spared his friend his attention from the spinning basketball on his finger.

“Oh?”

Seeing how Luhan was interested in what he had to say, Junho immediately launched into his talking spree as he retold what they saw earlier at the News and Media building entirely in his biased point of view, painting Jieun in the darkest colour as he could which in the end all the faults was on the girl’s head.

Minwoo shook his head at his friend’s ability in distorting the truth, but chose to keep quiet to prevent Junho from jumping at any opportunity to endlessly. Instead, he looked forward to how Luhan would react at the news of Lee Jieun’s return. Nevertheless, Luhan only smiled wickedly and patted a tad too hard on Minwoo’s back that the latter staggered.

“So the show has begun! Don’t you worry, Min chubby, I’ll help you to get your revenge!”

In fact, Luhan had long heard about the return of the Lee’s from his father. He did not have the slightest interest on the girl’s return or whatnot. Their few interactions with each other had never been pleasant and his father actually asked him to take care of Lee Jieun in the campus. He scoffed and wondered what on earth that the Lee’s had been feeding his father to be so eager in pleasing them. However, what he was sure of was that there would be more drama to unfold now that Lee Jieun was back and it had already begun.

〜❅〜

Lee Taewon and his daughter were welcomed into the house by a maid. However the three of them remained still in their place when a bellow of rage echoed through the hallway. With no words exchanged, the father and daughter clearly knew whose that roar belonged to, albeit all these time this familiar voice always speak in a soft and polite tone, it was surprising that the owner could raise his voice this loud that Jieun almost thought her eardrum might be ruptured.

The maid creaked an apologetic smile at them before turning around to lead them the way. Just a turn into what Jieun assumed as the living room, a blur of black was coming so fast towards her face that she ducked in an instant and  a loud thud was heard. She peered to the back and saw a feather dust dropped to the floor after hitting the wall.

Another thing narrowly missed Jieun’s right ear and before she could figure out what was the unknown ‘weapon’ that happened to flew by, she saw the pair of eyes which strongly resembled a deer’s, then the crash of the tall figure right at her feet.

Luhan wished that he crashed the ground hard enough to create a hole to swallow him in. He would rather endure the attacks of feather dust and slipper than sprawled across the floor, staring at the smiley teddy on the slippers reserved for guests.

Jieun had the same neutral countenance as her father, absolutely unaffected by the commotion that had just happened. She cocked her head slightly as she eyed the lanky figure that had gone still after his unceremonious welcome for them.

Soft curls on his head tousled yet seemingly styled from the ruckus, the ideal oval shaped face with extremely pale and smooth skin which every female envied, reddened cheeks and pursed pink lips in a scowl just made one wonder how could such a face belonged to a male whom towered Jieun at least a head as he quickly stood up.

What a waste of such looks on a boy.

The maid quickly took the silence moment to announce the arrival of the guests.

“Sir, Mr. Lee and his daughter are here.”

Lu Junyi had long noticed the presence of his invited guests the moment the slipper slipped out of his grip, however it was too late; the slipper flew across the living room and his disgraceful son decided to kiss the ground right that second.

He shakily breathed in and out, trying to compose himself as he hid his face momentarily behind his hand that was still red from the grip of the slipper. Nevertheless, his son who was born to be against him decided to speak up and his body just reacted.

“Why are you here?”

Right after his words died, a magazine shot through the air and Luhan immediately hollowed in pain as he grabbed onto the back of his head.

Lu Junyi laughed dryly and gestured the two to sit down as he signalled the maid to bring out tea.

“Apologies,..giving such impression to you two who are here for the first time. My son still needs scolding from time to time.”

“It may be unnoticeable now, but children do understand your efforts for them especially at your son’s age.”

Lee Taewon reassured him and sat down on the linen-covered couch, subconsciously the fabric.

“Ah, my wife prefers such fabric than leather so I went along with it and she did make a good choice.”

Jieun’s fingers brushed passed the arm rest, reminiscing how her mother’s preference was similar to this and their house was once furnished with only polyester and linen furniture.

Not noticing that the father and daughter were distracted in their own thoughts, Lu Junyi glared at Luhan who was about to slip away and mustered a forceful smile at him.

“Luhan, why don’t you bring Jieun around while I discuss matters with her father?”

Luhan certainly did not miss the evil gleam in his father’s eye as he voiced out his ‘suggestion’, even so he stubbornly stayed rooted on his feet, as if to challenge his old man to whip out another feather dust.

Lee Taewon understood that the relationship between the two youngsters was as bad or even worse as it seemed. Nevertheless, the Lu Junyi had helped him great deal and he naturally hoped that their children could get along too. So he gave Jieun an encouraged push towards Luhan.

“Jieun, go take a look with Luhan.”

Jieun smiled while nodding her head as she walked towards Luhan who was now puffing his cheeks slightly out of dissatisfaction. Just then, Luhan’s mother showed up with a tray of tea and cups, chucked merrily.

“Oh, don’t mind them, they just love to chase each other around as exercising.”

Lee Taewon’s polite smile faltered slightly as he suppressed his urge to laugh and distracted himself as he helped himself with the tea that had been served.

Luhan grunted and took his leave without acknowledging Jieun. To avoid any further unpleasantness, Jieun quickly followed after him after politely telling the adults that they were leaving.

They did not exchange any words, but Luhan knew that she was following him as he was aimlessly strolling around the backyard. Autumn might be close by, but the sun was still blazing down which after a short while, Luhan had to hide under the shade provided the trees.

Without any second thoughts, he lounged on the hammock chair, stretching his long limbs, not leaving any place.

Jieun easily saw through his little acts but paid no heed to it and remained silence as she leisurely gazed at the floating clouds in the sky.

Of course, Luhan was not satisfied with the lack of reaction from the fiery girl and pompously gestured towards her with a curl of his finger without even opening his eyes.

“Swing the hammock.”

Although there was no response, in no time, he felt the rhythmic sway of the hammock and very soon being lulled into a comfortable rocking motion. Yet, he suddenly remembered how he was blatantly ignored when their current roles were reversed during his first and last visit to the Lee’s mansion.

With the rekindled avenging thoughts, he opened his eyes and snickered.

“So, Miss No longer Rich, now you feel what it’s like to be in the favour of someone else’s.”

Luhan thought the ever-calm Lee Jieun must had been stunned by his words and continued to take advantage of the silence to further mock her.

“Karma’s a . This is how you end up after all the mistreatments I had because of you.”

Luhan was gleefully enjoying his egoistic moments and the steady rocking motion further encouraged his taunting.

“Well, now that you’re in the grace of my family, I suppose you need to be more humble. So, whatever I ask of you, you would comply, won’t you?”

The affirmation of a mumble close to yes made Luhan snapped his eyes open, expecting Jieun’s small face to scrunch and the ever-mocking gaze becomes aggrieved. Instead Jieun was looking down at him with the very same countenance she had when she gave him the nickname he hated the most and her lips moved.

“Okay, Lu Meizi.”

 Luhan sprung up from his position and almost lost his balance as the swaying increased in speed and force. He lied back immediately and anger flared up again as he saw how Jieun’s lips tugged upwards while her stare at him was ravening. His fingers subconsciously grabbed onto the cloth beneath him, he might really fall if the crazy girl did not stop what she was doing.

“It’s true that I’m grateful to what your father had done for us and would do what could repay him. You’re just lucky that you’re his son.”

He saw that her hand had left the hammock but the momentum kept his world swinging. Even so, what he wanted that instant was to stop swaying and stand on his feet. With his fumbling, the hammock soon turned heavily to one side and once again he saw himself being pulled towards the gravity. His vision went black.

Luhan gasped the moment he sat up and his hands flunked to the sides, hitting the desk lamp so loud which his choking turned to a hissing of pain.

His scattered mind recalled the blue sky, rocking hammock, the pair of worn out converse shoes and lastly her face with that vicious grin while her words from last week echoed through his brain.

Lu Meizi

Luhan groaned in his hands as he realized out of so many things, he had to dream about Lee Jieun and the embarrassing memory of that day at the backyard.

He knew today was going to be bad and it begun with his father barging through the door and a feather dust in his hand.

“You’re still in your bed? You lazy bum! You’re late for your class!”

Long time no see, Luhan!