oh se-idiot:

7:08AM

i forgot my keys at hani's house.

oh se-idiot:

7:08AM

'bouts to be some real romeo and juliet here.

oh se-idiot:

7:08AM

you obviously have no idea what im capable of

oh se-idiot:

7:10AM

get ur flat off the damn computer.

oh se-idiot:

7:11AM

i s2g if i throw a rock in ur window and see u playing lol

oh se-idiot:

7:13AM

get the up, we're robbing a bank.

oh se-idiot:

7:15AM

im thru w/ ur .

 

Kim Jongin wakes up to the sound of glass breaking which is probably a sound that he should get up and run, but he went to bed at five playing league. He has priorities and those do not include running away from a potentially dangerous situation. (Though, then again, there really isn't anything in his house worth stealing. Well, maybe his mom's fine china set, but she can always replace that.) Groggily, the blonde sits up in his bed, stares at the broken window and waits for something to tell him he needs to run away.

 

"Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba Sithi uhm ingonyama!" he hears from his windowsill. The beginning of "The Circle of Life" is always a great way to start the day. There is only one lion with a mane of chocolate who he knows would even think it's a good idea to screech the sounds of Lion King into his room.

 

" is real when I'm quoting the mothering Lion King." the voice says as it throws itself onto Jongin's bed.

 

And that is Oh Sehun.

 

There is also a reason why he has the keys to his house.

 

"Why didn't you just ring the doorbell?" Jongin groans as he hides his bedhead under his fluffy and lovely pillows. "You even have the keys to the damn house," he grumbles, tossing a pillow towards Sehun's face.

 

"You do not just ring the glorious lion mouth doorbell to wake up a sleeping beauty. No, you text him seventy-three times as it rings to some Apink song and remember that Kim Jongin is gloriously in love with Sojin!" Sehun proclaims, taking all his pillows and smashing them right onto his body. Or somehow attempts to because Sehun is the weakest guy Jongin has ever met, and if Sehun tries to argue otherwise, no. Even Jongin can't finish that sentence.

 

"You said glorious twice."

 

"You do not mock the vocabulary of a god!"

 

"Aren't you Catholic?"

 

"Yes. And your point is?"

 

Sehun is not a force to argue with due to the fact that he uses the best fallacies. Jongin groans once more before Sehun throws a punch to his stomach and starts some kind of war. Again, Sehun should not be at his house to throw rocks at his bedroom. It is a really good thing that Sehun knows people that could fix his broken windows. It is also a really good thing that Sehun is rich. He gets away with half of his stupidity due to the fact that he has too much money, and the other half is because he knows how to charm anyone he meets.

 

"Never mind. Why are you here again?" Jongin questions, slowly rising from his bed to the meet the eyes of a vibrant nineteen year old. He jumps off the bed and starts pacing. He even starts to cluck. It's one of his habits. Jongin has learned over the years not to question the left and right signal sound thing unless he doesn't want to know the answer.

 

"It is June twenty-first and it is also the summer solstice, the longest damn day of the year!" Sehun states dramatically. (Because if Sehun isn't dramatic, he isn't Sehun.) "And you will not be spending the longest day playing League, or DOTA, or Mortal Kombat, or, pray for your soul, Barbie."

 

"It was for my little sister. You're the one who stayed on the website to dress up Barbie for hours," Jongin snarks back. Sehun glares at him. The blonde only pulls this blackmail when he is obnoxiously annoyed with the ego of Oh Sehun.

 

"I will send out those -"

 

"Holy , fine. I'll go along. I swear if you even text that screenshot to anyone, I will kill you," he says. He lazily gets out of his bed and heads towards his closet. "What do I need to wear?" he asks, looking at his flamboyant friend's attire. (A white bro tank and a pair of gray joggers never really fit his personality, but whatever, Jongin knows he dresses better than the boy any day.)

 

"Something to impress Hani. She wouldn't let me leave my house in my tiger onesies," he shrugs.

 

"Why is Hani here? Why do you even call her Hani? I'm pretty sure Heeyeon likes her name," Jongin asks over the rummaging of his clothes. Jongin ruffles his own hair, trying to comprehend at seven-thirty why he's up on a Monday morning. There are reasons why he doesn't spend too much time with Sehun during the summers.

 

"Hani just sounds better. She doesn't care either way," Sehun replies, plopping down on Jongin's white comforter with a content smile on his face. If Jongin didn't know better, he would guess that the boy has a crush on the girl. But Heeyeon isn't interested in most affairs, especially those that involve actual work such as relationships.

 

Jongin pulls out a v-neck and some sweats because if Sehun isn't trying, he shouldn't try either. "Alright," he answers. "I'm going to shower now. Do you want to join me or something?" he asks with a smirk.

 

"Zitao asked me one time and I said yes. Do you have to bring it up every single time!?"

 

"How big was it?" Jongin shouts from the bathroom.

 

He can feel the guy turn red and Jongin laughs so loud that Sehun might want to throw another rock. Jongin can't really deal with another seven years of bad luck. He's already stuck with Sehun.

 

hani <3:

8:23AM

open the door.

semba:

8:24AM

it's so far away

hani <3:

8:26AM

just open the door

semba:

8:27AM

i could but nah

hani <3:

8:28AM

wow.

 

Sehun is lying on his couch downstairs, hands on his iPhone and a smile on his face. Jongin dries the rest of his hair with the towel and throws it onto the table next to the couch. At times like these, he is very grateful that his mother is in Korea and he has the house to himself most of the time. His mom would kill him for placing something so wet on the table.

 

"Ready?" Jongin asks. Sehun looks away from his phone and simply nods. He throws his phone into his pocket and becomes a servant as he opens the door for his master, Jongin. "Cute," Jongin replies with a grin. Though, he's not sure what he should say about the car on his driveway.

 

It's a nice car. It's a cherry red and something directors would use in movies, but Sehun doesn't own a car like that. (He likes his black cars a bit too much.) And Heeyeon seems too relaxed for it to be hers. (Heeyeon can't stand filth in her car.) She rests her feet on the dash, her eyes focused on the black nail polish at hand, the stereo is playing some pop music. This is definitely not Sehun's car.

 

"Whose car is this?" Jongin asks, baffled.

 

Heeyeon ignores his question and glares at Sehun.

 

"I asked you if you could open the door," Heeyeon puffs, blowing her bangs out of her face. She's a pouty person when she wakes up early in the morning. But then she smirks at Jongin and he knows that she really isn't a pouty person. She just likes to play devil with the rest of them.

 

"It was too far away!" he complains, jumping into the passenger's seat.

 

"Sure it was," she says with a roll of her eyes. Jongin grumbles his question once again and takes a seat in the back of the convertible. Heeyeon turns in her seat and answers, "I don't know, I think it was my neighbor's. But he gave me the keys so I guess it was okay."

 

Jongin is sitting in a stolen car. Realistically, he would be concerned that they would get caught and thrown or jail or something of that sort, but Heeyeon states everything with such a nonchalance that he relaxes too.

 

"Need anything to eat?" she asks as she backs out of his driveway perfectly. (Something he still fails at, but he doesn't want his jealousy to show, obviously.)

 

"Starbucks would be fine."

 

"Of course basic Jongin would say that. We need to fix your pH level," Sehun complains.

 

"He doesn't even know about real coffee. For shame, don't you think, Hani?" Sehun mock cries.

 

"It's too early for this, Sehun," Heeyeon states. Heeyeon is the only person that could shut him up. Jongin thinks it's because she has him whipped. Heeyeon doesn't argue and Sehun looks like a scared little puppy whenever he brings it up. So, he thinks he's pretty much correct. "We'll force Soojung to make pancakes," Heeyeon says.

 

"I'll text her," Jongin comments because he knows Soojung would rather be texted by him than by Heeyeon, the stranger, and Sehun, the strange. Besides, she likes sleep and his text tone is her favorite wake up call.

 

 

soo yum jung:

9:23AM

hey can we crash your place for pancakes?

kim jong ick:

9:46AM

yeah, in like an hour.

kim jong ick:

9:46AM

code is 7892

soo yum jung:

9:52AM

you took a really long time to reply to this.

kim jong ick:

9:53AM

sister's home. i don't get sleep anymore

soo yum jung:

9:55AM

dude, can i hit on your sister?

kim jong ick:

9:58AM

she's into girls. she's dating some girl from her college.

soo yum jung:

9:58AM

weird. so pancakes?

kim jong ick:

9:59AM

yeah

soo yum jung:

9:59AM

k

 

Jongin presses the buttons to his darling Soojung's garage. Sehun yells about breaking and entering, but Jongin has to remind him that the guy broke into his house. The brunette doesn't say anything else. The brunette has no place to say any of that. When Jongin opens the door from the garage to Soojung's house, he can smell the scent of pancakes.

 

He can also hear the giggles of a few girls.

 

"We're here!" Jongin shouts and finds his way to Soojung's kitchen. He can smell butter and flour and her older sister is on the marble kitchen table, laughing at some joke Soojung made.

 

"Hey, welcome, cutie!" she exclaims. "Soojung was just finishing up the last of the pancakes," she states, pointing at Soojung in a messy apron, with a messy ponytail but with the most perfect pancakes stacked on a plate waiting for them. Heeyeon grabs a seat on the couch because Soojung's kitchen and family room aren't rooms away, no, just a few steps away. Sehun runs towards the stove, begging Soojung if he could make Rilakkuma pancakes (the boy watches too many cooking videos online) and Jongin finally smiles in the elder's direction.

 

"Who's the new one?" she asks when she notices a new female face in the group.

 

"Ahn Heeyeon," Heeyeon states, not looking away from the giant television in front of her. (The Jungs' are almost as rich as the Ohs', but they like to be humble about it.)

 

"New girl on the block but also the best driver among the four of us," Soojung explains, her eyes roaming towards Heeyeon as well. The two aren't the closest as they should, but Heeyeon still feels awkward with the group. She only moved in a few months ago, didn't have a group of friends to join, and she just happened to live a few doors down from Sehun's. Sehun just couldn't say no when she came out of her house and knocked on his door for him to get off her wifi. This all happened during the random college winter break. They still don't know what college she goes to.

 

"Also the best league player out of us," Jongin adds. Heeyeon grins and throws up a peace sign into the air. "And one of the better athletes out there too," he finishes. Heeyeon smiles softly, changes the channel and watches some cartoon show. It is Monday morning and Soojung has satellite television.

 

Jongin takes a seat next to the beautiful girl and she wraps an arm around his shoulder. "I hear you wanted to hit on me?" she asks twirling a lock of her brunette hair. "How flattering, but I bet my boo would get too jealous," she comments with another giggle.

 

"I mean, she is pretty attractive," Heeyeon says absentmindedly.

 

"I have to inherit my good looks from someone," Soojung adds.

 

"10 out of 10, would bang," Heeyeon finishes, making Soojung laugh.

 

Jongin doesn't get girls. Sehun doesn't try to understand them. Soojung finally finishes the pancakes (and Sehun's Rilakkuma pancakes), puts them on the kitchen table and everyone runs for it. Soojung's pancakes are to die for. Soojung's cooking in general is the "bomb dot com."

 

Heeyeon slides for the first three pancakes, Sehun pulls on her hair so he can get some. Sehun screeches when someone tries to steal his Rilakkuma pancakes, and Heeyeon takes a bite out of the ear which makes Sehun cry in dismay. Jongin and Soojung stand on the side watching the jungle rip each other apart.

 

"Any leftover batter?" Jongin asks with his arms crossed, watching the three of them fight.

 

"Ow, Sehun, stop pulling my hair!"

 

"Why did you eat my Rilakkuma!?"

 

"Mine! Mine! Mine!"

 

"Yeah, any requests?" she says nonchalantly, still amused by the chaos that is their friends. She watches as Sehun tackles Soojung's older sister onto the ground because his Rilakkuma pancake is hanging by her teeth. Heeyeon takes the moment to get revenge and pulls on Sehun's brunette hair. This is a dangerous pastime.

 

"Nah, do you think there's going to be pancakes that survived this battle?" he asks. Sooyeon has gotten out of Sehun's grasps and is screaming profanities for the whole neighborhood to hear. Sehun gets his teeth onto the pancake, and there is now a tug-of-war. Heeyeon is blinded by her caramel bangs and backs out of the fight bruised and with a few locks of Sehun's hair in her grip.

 

"I mean, there's still a bunch on the table," Soojung shrugs.

 

"That's right."

 

The two of them take a spot at the kitchen table and ignore the chaos. Heeyeon mends to her battle wounds before joining the sanes at the table. It is an awful noise fiasco going on in front of the three, but no one wants to break them up. It's a lot of work.

 

"Pass the syrup please," Soojung states, her hands looking like claws for the syrup cannister that is the closest to Jongin. It slides towards her and the conversation among the three of them is calm and soothing.

 

They really don't care what is going on.

 

 

sehuno:

10:33AM

can you stop ing around with my sister?

so no jung:

10:34

yeah, she ate my rilakkuma pancakes doe

sehuno:

10:34AM

there is still five here

so no jung:

10:35AM
o y u no tell

sehuno:

10:35AM

u no ask

 

It takes Sehun a whole war to realize that there are still pancakes with his name on it. It really isn't surprising because he's not the brightest of the bunch, but still. Sehun is some kind of crazy, and Soojung knows that he lacks common sense. All of them actually lack common sense. It's just that Sehun lacks the most common sense. Sehun crawls back to the table and limps into his seat.

 

"She ate all my pancakes!" Sehun whines.

 

"Dude, there are still five here," Jongin finishes.

 

Sehun stops his whining, puts syrup on his pancakes, and eats with a pout on his face. Again, no one really understands Sehun all that well, but he is a peacock with a lot of different colors as he likes to state. Heeyeon thinks he's more a parrot than anything.

 

Heeyeon offers to do the dishes and Soojung's sister leaves the house because her girlfriend comes over too early. The rest of them lay on the couch, Soojung's head on Sehun's lap and her legs tangled with Jongin. Soojung has never been the one who cared for personal space. It's something that she gets used to after being friends with the two idiots since freshman year in high school.

 

Soojung changes the channel to some comedy movie. Someone complains. Jongin takes the remote. It takes the new girl a few minutes to finish washing the dishes before Soojung adjusts and somehow Heeyeon is sitting on top of Sehun. Jongin is on the arm of the couch and Soojung is laying on the couch. No one tells Soojung that she can't sit wherever she wants. They all bow to her commands.

 

"What should we do?" Soojung asks, staring at Jongin, which is a bad idea because he has no idea what they're doing either. Actually, he still doesn't know why Sehun threw a rock into his room, or why the summer solstice is such a big deal to him.

 

"The Chois are hosting a beach party later to celebrate so we gotta go to it. Should we just hang out at your house, Soojung-ah?" Sehun asks with too much sugar.

 

"I’d rather not have you idiots at my house."

 

"Okay, so scratch that out. Anyone have a plan?" Sehun asks with interest.

 

"You kidnapped me without a damn plan!?" Jongin shouts.

 

"I didn't think that far ahead. Could you calm down? Like ," Sehun groans, holding his head. Someone needs to explain Sehun's extreme mood swings and why he's a special snowflake. No one is special-er than Sehun. Sehun is the special-est.  Heeyeon looks up from her phone and sighs. A sighing Heeyeon is always a bad thing.

 

"I got a plan. Everyone to the car!" Heeyeon exclaims, pointing to the front door. They don't complain because Soojung pushes all of them off her black couch and to the doorway. Again, no one really battles Soojung unless they want to be thrown into a lion's den.

 

Jongin was the first to ask where they're going, but Heeyeon doesn't answer. Her eyes are focused on the road and Sehun gave up his seat so that Jongin could talk to her. It's quiet except for Sehun and Soojung chatting about different kinds of bags for a city trip. (Personally, Jongin likes the Jansport backpacks, Heeyeon likes Herschel, Sehun likes Levi's, and Soojung just doesn't carry backpacks.) Jongin tries to break the silence somehow.

 

"So is there a reason why Sehun isn't driving?" Jongin asks when they approach a busy stop sign.

 

"He backed out of his driveway and hit someone else's car," Heeyeon answers. Of course Sehun would do something like that. It is almost impossible for Sehun not drive without a parental figure next to him.

 

"How?" Jongin questions. Heeyeon turns on her turn signal, runs into traffic, and somehow doesn't flip off the person who cuts her off. (Heeyeon has been known for her extreme road rage.)

 

"He was playing The Lion King while he was backing and he started crying during the opening sequence," Heeyeon shrugs. It was also obvious that the root of this accident was connected to Lion King. Lion King has a special connection with him. "He doesn't even need to watch it, he just needs to hear the opening, and waterworks," Heeyeon finishes. With a roll of her eyes, she gets into her neighborhood, and parks the car in her neighbor's driveway. She doesn’t like parking near the curb. It ends up being disastrous most of the time.

 

"Why are we here?" Soojung asks.

 

"I gotta return the car to Minseok, it won't be that big of a deal, right?" Heeyeon says as she turns in her seat.

 

"Uh, we kind of need the car," Soojung answers.

 

"We'll figure something out," Heeyeon shrugs.

 

"Wait, you're going to say hey to Minseok, I want in. Jongin too!" Sehun exclaims. Minseok is actually the cutest. Jongin isn't really surprised that Sehun volunteers him too because Sehun has this belief that he's homoual. And Sehun just really likes Minseok because he tutored him in Calculus back in high school.

 

Heeyeon rolls her eyes, heaves a sigh, and gets out of the car with a bouncing Sehun and an intrigued Jongin. Heeyeon doesn't speak about her other friends, so for her to even mention someone's name is startling. It is also an advancement in their newly budded friendship. Well, Jongin thinks so anyways.

 

Sehun rings the doorbell. The male on the other side holds a bottle of water in his hands and smiles at the sight of Heeyeon. Minseok is small in physique, his cheeks are chubby when he wants them to be, and he's overall a nice guy. He just seems a lot more nicer now that Heeyeon is in front of him.

 

"Here's your keys, boo," Heeyeon says while throwing the keys towards him. Minseok laughs and throws the keys on his table. Heeyeon could really be into him, but Jongin shouldn't assume. "Fancy plans for today?" she asks, crossing her arms.

 

"I was going to buy some groceries for the beach party tonight. Taemin put me in charge of food with Kyungsoo," he answers. He notices that Jongin and Sehun are hiding behind Heeyeon and chuckles.

 

"Did they haze you into their group? Mornin' Sehun," he greets first. Minseok waves at Jongin as well.  Of course, someone would ask them that. Soojung doesn’t approve of hazing, and even if Jongin brought up the idea of initiation, the only who would be initiated would be him.  

 

"Nah, I had to kick the Oh idiot off my wifi network to get in," Heeyeon says with a chuckle. "Taemin did? Huh, strange, you'd think Kibum would be in charge of this kind of stuff," she says.

 

"Yeah, Key had a meltdown, so he threw everything to his second-hand man. But hey, thanks for returning my car. Kyungsoo doesn't have one and I'm not walking for an hour just to get groceries."

 

"Yeah, of course. It is your car. But do you mind if you drive us to the fancy dress shop near here? I gotta get a ride somehow," Heeyeon asks. The boys look extremely confused, but Minseok is the first to say sure, and they head back to the car.

 

"You didn't tell me you were a mastermind at planning," Sehun says with a smirk on his face.

 

"Actually, this is more Soojung's plan than mine," Heeyeon giggles when they pile in. Soojung looks at her with a devious look. The relationship between the two may or may not have been more interesting than he would have believed it to be. It isn't a bad thing to say, but the looks that they exchange have an inside joke that none of the guys will ever know about. It’s possibly safer that way.

 

The girls chat with such intensity that both of the guys are scared as to what might happen next.

 

It is often said that the curiosity killed the cat. When Minseok drops them off at some dress boutique, the guys both wish that curiosity would come and kill them. They are like cats. But it doesn’t, the red haired Soojung runs for one dress in particular, a pale gold gown, and ignores the rest of them. It goes perfect with her black converse. Truly perfect. Much perfect. Someone kill him.

 

Heeyeon grabs the closest thing to her, a crimson dress adorn with a few crystals, strapless, sleeveless, and elegant like fine wine. The guys sit in the corner, chatting with one of the retail clerks because they really don’t know why they’re there, or if they should look for suits. Someone kill them.

 

It doesn’t matter though because the girls find them tuxes. (It’s strange how much Soojung knows about them. She knows so much that she could probably release some scandalous information about Sehun and steal his inheritance. It really is that bad.)

 

“Change. We have to go to that fancy restaurant up the street,” Soojung commands. The princess is always in charge. She could have them beheaded if she ever wanted to, or castrated, but they don’t want to bring up that option. Never bring up castration when Soojung is around. It might actually happen.

 

They all change, the red haired fashionista finds shoes for everyone, and before anyone knows it, they’re walking uphill to a restaurant that Sehun loves to go but hates all at the same time.

 

“The place doesn’t even serve quality food. I don’t know why all the millionaires rave about it!” Sehun rants. A sassy Sehun is not a force to be reckoning with. He walks normally and it seems like he’s completely sane, but he is cringing. “Authentic Italian food, my . I’ve been to Italy, and damn it, this is just American food!” The brunette’s eyes come to life, and if there has ever been a real Lion King, it would probably be him at the moment. No one dares interrupt a lion.

 

“And another thing, liking Chinese cooking is not a real reason why you want to go to China. You are spending a hell of a lot of money just to go to China. Why the hell would you go to China just for that?! The idiots in my Japanese class actually believed that was a real reason!”

 

The thing about Sehun is that he gradually gets angrier as he speaks. It starts off quiet and nice, but the moment he finds the , it gets loud and flailing. His hand gestures become grand, and he shouts at no one in general. He is the most entertaining guy in the group. Sehun apologizes after he says all that, and somewhere in between all the ranting is the velvet building called Le Bliss. They stand around in the parking lot. The guys want to complain that this is an atrocity and they will get ran over if they’re only scoping prey. Someone must kill them. Please, he’d even beg Sehun to get God to pray that they die.

 

The parking lot is full of luxurious cars of various colors. People who pass by always end up giving their car keys to the valet, and the highlight of the restaurant is its lunch menu. It is extremely expensive, but the alcohol is cheaper during the day hours than the night hours. Jongin knows because Sehun really likes getting drunk at eleven in the morning.

 

It isn’t too long when someone pulls up to the valet with a cherry red car. In Heeyeon’s eyes, it is completely gorgeous and wonderful and she would love to have her hands on that velvet beauty. The man who steps out of the car isn’t too shabby looking either. His large eyes and stoic look only makes Heeyeon gives the eyebrow wiggle to Soojung.

 

Guys that look good in suits are hard to find. It is also hard to find a gorgeous blonde in a suit like that. It’s also difficult to see Heeyeon interested in anyone.

 

“You want him?” Heeyeon asks, her eyes never leaving his face. The red haired beauty only plays with her hair. There could be two ways to settle this, give her the gorgeous treasure or she takes it.

 

“I took Jongsuk. I’m sure it’s your turn,” she says with a devilish grin. Heeyeon smacks her and smiles.

 

“This is why I love you.”

 

“I love me too.”

 

Heeyeon and Soojung are the ultimate OTP. Anyone who says otherwise are liars. Well, Sehun thinks anyways. It’s hard not to see the two girls act strangely close to each other like this.

 

Heeyeon fixes her dress, finds her prey, and dives into the blonde with a signature “bedroom look” as Soojung likes to put it. She bumps into him on “accident” and it’s the turn that starts the fire.

 

“I’m so sorry,” she apologizes. She tries to smooth out her dress and fix her heels that become undone. “Are you alright?” she asks in alarm. Her eyes feigning concern.

 

 

He is possibly the most handsome man she has ever met. It is unfair that he exists, but he scratches the back of his head and smiles. Oh gosh, there is no way he should have that kind of smile. There is no way he should be staring at her in that way. The young adult becomes an awkward fit of giggles. He is kryptonite and –

 

“I’m okay. Are you alright, ma’am?” he asks.

 

Her awkward fits of giggles dissipate the moment he calls her ma’am. The word has a bad history with her, and she changes her tactics once again.

 

“Yeah, I’m okay, but I have to admit, I would be more okay if I could have lunch with a fellow like yourself,” she answers with her eyes back to their bedroom status. He looks flabbergasted at the answer, but it returns to a natural smirk when their eyes meet again.

 

“How did you know I was here alone?” he asks. Heeyeon wants to say that she doesn’t really know, but she really wants to get into his car and take everything, but she only smiles a coy smile before twirling a piece of her hair.

 

“I was afraid that you’d be taken, someone as handsome as yourself couldn’t possibly be single,” she comments. He chuckles at the compliment, and Heeyeon swears that he could possibly her type.

 

“Well, perhaps today, you could be my significant other,” he says jokingly. He adjusts his dark tie and smiles at her.

 

“A Monday Girlfriend? I don’t think I mind at all,” Heeyeon finalizes.

 

He pulls out his arm and says with a confident stride, “Well, off we go, princess.” Heeyeon links her arm with his. “You’re paying though, aren’t you?” he jokes again.

 

Heeyeon laughs and leaves an okay sign right behind her back to let Soojung know that he takes the bait.

 

“ yeah, my apprentice has learned well,” Soojung exclaims to the boys.

 

The boys don’t really care. They are making circles with sticks on the parking lot, complaining about their friends because they should never make them wear suits in this kind of weather.

 

Soojung is just too proud of her little baby growing up and seducing rich boys. Again, the boys really don’t care.

 

 

queen:

12:34PM

I’ll be back in a few minutes.

my love:

12:34PM

You better bring me food.

queen:

12:35PM
Of course, anything for my queen.

my love:

12:37PM

I need food, peasant.

queen:

12:37PM

See you soon too.

 

It doesn’t take her Monday boyfriend too long to go to the bathroom. He’d say he would be right back and he already paid the bill. Only gentlemen pay before they go. Ugh, he might actually be her type. She leaves a phone number and her lipstick before running out of the restaurant and meeting the valet boy.

 

He’s scrawny, almost tiny, really. The type of guy who would die to see someone like her. It’s not that big of a deal she comes to realize, but she is the Robin Hood of kissing. For the unfortunate who will never be kissed by beautiful women, she knows what to do.  

 

He’s skeptical at first to give her the keys, but she has a way with humans that others can’t argue with. (Two kisses on the lips and a few pretty words never hurt nobody.) The girl giggles her goodbye for him and he is still blushing red. His name might have been Mark, it might have been Bam Bam, she doesn’t really remember. He’s not blonde so she really doesn’t care.

 

It takes Heeyeon to figure out all the controls of her boyfriend’s car, but she really doesn’t care. She takes the beauty on a spin towards the kids, waiting for her to finish her deal. The guys are rating girls on a scale of one to ten and Soojung just wants to go inside and get food. Her SOS texts to Heeyeon is the proof of her hunger.

 

“It took you long enough,” Soojung complains. Heeyeon rolls her eyes, throws her queen a bag of leftovers, and it shuts her up for a good ten minutes. Well, it keeps her tamed without the comments. It doesn’t take her long to ask her a few questions.

 

“How cute was he? On a scale of one to ten. One being Jong-ick and ten being a Kim Jongkook,” she asks with a sly smile. Jongin glares, rips off a piece of her breadstick and glares. He has it coming after all the rating he’s done with Sehun. But Jongin loosens his tie, tries his best to make himself look y, but he really looks like a potato.  

 

“I resent that. I have been nothing but nice to you ever since we were five,” Jongin bitterly answers, taking a bite out of it. Soojung puts a manicured pink nail to his lips and hushes him.

 

“Be quiet, peasant, your body is not as heavenly as his,” Soojung answers for him. Jongin can’t argue because Kim Jongkook is muscular and toned, and he’s completely jealous of that. Jongkook needs to be his personal trainer.

 

“Seven, he was nice, a bit toned, and blonde. Blondes always get my attention, you know that,” Heeyeon answers as she flows through the one o’clock traffic. The conversation between the two are soft and silly, young and immature.

 

Soojung has always been one to put up the responsible front with everyone. The girl has too much on her plate: cooking class, piano, an excellent grade point average, and an amazing athletic ability when she wanted to be. Soojung is an adult before she is eighteen.

 

Heeyeon releases the young-ness from her. There is always a point in time where someone needs to let go, Soojung has Heeyeon for her adventures and teenager-like speech. The two giggle and laugh at silly inside jokes that the boys will never understand. Her red hair spins like gold and the roof of the car goes up and down with Soojung’s command.

 

“But oh my gosh, he was so basic,” Heeyeon states in the most valley girl voice. Soojung’s laugh ends up five octaves higher than it should be, and the laughter gets everyone else laughing.

 

Soojung is what Jongin likes to call perfection, but the kind of perfection he never wants to be. Someone who works to death and follows too many rules. The Jungs’ baby, perfect little angel.

 

It’s almost sickening sometimes to see her act like that. She’s tied to a role and he can see through the smiles that it bugs her sometimes. Being an adult when one is young is an unusual punishment.

 

“Where the are we?” Sehun curses when Heeyeon pulls up to a quick mart. Sehun still hates gas stations and getting snacks there. They all get out of their seats and stand in a square, circle, rectangle shape. It is now a discussion, apparently.

 

 

 

Whenever these four hangout, there are two things they have to have. S’mores and lemonades.

 

“Where’s your debit card?” Soojung asks, her laughing montage disappears and the responsible woman comes out. She tries to search Sehun for his wallet, casually smacking his to see if it’s in his back pockets. Soojung enjoys harassing Sehun more than Jongin does. “Don’t tell me you over-drafted again,” Soojung groans when her hands find his wallet. (It’s in his front pocket and even Jongin would have told her, but he knows how much she likes to abuse Sehun.)

 

“How would I overdraft?!”

 

“Riot cards…” Jongin coughs.

 

“It was one time, Kim,” Sehun glares. Everything only happens once for Sehun. Not having enough money to get back to the states, getting robbed, hacking into someone’s MapleStory account, everything is a once in a lifetime chance.

 

“Still can’t play League with one hand?” Heeyeon jokes.

 

Sehun turns bright red. There are times in his sad, pathetic, teenage life that Sehun should not use social media to praise the pop star Ahri Champion for her appeal. It’ll never go away. This would never go down. It would rise with flames, not go down in flames.

 

“I was young!” Sehun rebuts. It was actually from a year ago, but Sehun acts like he’s thirteen and a half instead of thirteen now. “Let it go, people!” he almost shouts. Sehun is a drama queen like no other.

 

Jongin sighs at Sehun’s ridiculous behavior and finally takes out his own debit card. “What’s this for again?” Jongin asks. The girls are in charge of being smart. The guys only come for fun. They’re more like accessories at this point, he thinks.

 

“Get some lemonade, marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers, we’re having a lunner at my favorite place,” Soojung announces. She steals the debit card while he's confused.

 

“Lunner?” Jongin asks. Vocabulary is too hard for his college freshman mind.

 

“Late lunch, early dinner?” Sehun unconfidently answers. Of course Sehun would know the answer to all his lexicon questions. The guy is going to be an English major until proven otherwise. Jongin, Heeyeon, and Soojung all have a bet to decide what he’ll change to. (Eighty-seven dollars and ninety-three cents go to the winner.)

 

“Thanks, Mr. Oh,” Jongin replies sarcastically. Sehun gives a hair flip before calling dibs on the four bottles of lemonade and running into the mart. The guy rather not be seen in that so-called trashy place longer than needed. Soojung calls dibs on the chocolate which leaves Heeyeon and Jongin between marshmallows and graham crackers.

 

“So do you want the marshmallows or the graham crackers?” Heeyeon asks. The girl is never one to care what she has to do, just as long as she has something to do. The blonde just shakes his head for the answer. There are some things that can’t be answered with the shake of a head.

 

“Okay, let’s just go find them,” Heeyeon mutters. The girl grabs onto his arm and drags him into the quick mart.

Usually the layout of a quick mart is tiny and has everything that a gas station really needs, but this layout was much more than aisles of food. Instead, there are girls at the counter, all giggling and laughing. He swears he sees Soojung in that group, but the red head is just waiting to purchase her chocolate.

 

What is the most amazing thing is that Sehun is standing on top of the counter, there is no cashier, and he is giving them a show, a strip show. He slides down his bro tank for a millisecond and the girls scream.

 

“Hani, we have a crowd to entertain!” Sehun exclaims.

 

Heeyeon stares at him in disbelief. The brunette duo are unstoppable when it comes to performances, but Sehun is sliding off his pants, and Heeyeon is not one to join a Chip-N-Dale performance.

 

“I think I’m going to pass on this one!” Heeyeon shouts over the crowd of screaming fans. Sehun is stripping for teenagers. They are handing him ones. Oh Sehun doesn’t even like quick marts. He still somehow gets money.

 

It is a very puzzling situation. Soojung groans, throws the chocolate at Sehun, and joins Jongin and Heeyeon.

 

To be honest, it isn’t the strangest thing the three of them have seen. Sehun has quite a bucket list, and he’d do anything to check off this number. But the brunette continues to please the crowd, the screaming, the yelling, and the taking of the money. Mostly, the taking of the money. He’s kind of screaming for it.

 

“What the happened?” Jongin asks, his mouth still wide open.

 

“There’s only one guy who’s running the mart and he went on break. Well, sort of. He kind of just decided that since no one was going to buy anything, he could run out and take a smoke. There were just three girls here, but Sehun, oh my God, Sehun. Sehun decided because he didn’t want to use his debit card, he’d strip. The three girls ended up freaking out and somehow, this place got flooded.”
 

Sounds about right.

 

“We were only out there for five minutes.”

 

Twenty girls couldn’t show up in five minutes without one of them noticing the flood of human beings.

 

“They were thirsty.”

 

“Hella.”

 

The cashier comes back around and is in disbelief with what is happening.

 

“Get off my counter or I’m going to call the police!” the cashier screams. Jongin would have thought the cashier reminded him of some high school kid he knew, but that kid was bound for “greatness.” Jongin is also right in the long run, and he likes to silently laugh about it when he’s sad.

 

The guy doesn’t get off the counter until he collects all his dollar bills. Somehow, the brilliance of the Oh-idiot manages to get him one hundred and seventy-three dollars. The power of a desperate college kid.

 

The girls whine, Sehun pays for the lemonades and chocolate while Jongin and Heeyeon try to find the damn graham crackers and marshmallows.

“Why don’t these exist?!” Jongin complains. Heeyeon trails behind, looking for graham crackers and marshmallows.

 

“Dude, bot, bot, bot,” Heeyeon pings. It’s like she’s playing League all over again because at the very bottom of the shelf, in the right hand corner, right next to the saltines, cake mixes, and chips, there are graham crackers. Hallelujah for graham crackers.  Heeyeon grins and says, “Best support ever. You don’t even need an Ahri.”

 

“Top!” Jongin pings right after. The marshmallows are next to the canned foods. They do not have to slay an enemy turret to get a point. The mart is just a strange enemy team. Jongin pulls it off the shelf with a victorious smile. There is nothing better than finding the impossible.

 

 

“Fifteen kills, seven assists and three deaths. I call that a day,” the female companion replies.

 

“All in a day’s work between two great champions,” Jongin laughs. They bro-fist and pay excitedly for their items. They celebrate in dance as they approach the red convertible Heeyeon stole, while Soojung is in the driver’s seat and Sehun is in the shotgun. (In the future, he would learn that Soojung and Sehun were discussing the plot holes of The Scarlet Letter. Actually, it’s really Emma Stone in Easy A, but no one needed to know.)

 

“Took you long enough,” Soojung grumbles.

 

“A LoL game takes at least thirty minutes, come on, Soojung,” Jongin states chirpily. Soojung just rolls her eyes and starts up the car.

 

“Let’s go get some pizza!” Soojung exclaims because yummy food is more important than anything else. And because if there is one way to make Soojung cheer up, it is with good soul food, but mostly just junk food.

 

There are exclaims from all sides, and Sehun pumps up the radio as loud as it can go. (Even though Jongin really hates it, but no one else has a complaint.) The girl has Heeyeon dial the number for pizza and gives the place an address. Soojung is the only one who knows where this place is.

It’s an abandoned home, really. Soojung smiles, her red hair flies into the wind, and when they park, she runs right into the abandoned area.

 

Soojung is Ariel. The girl has a wide smile, and at times she would yell pickup lines, but she smiles at her secret hideout. Soojung loves her adventures as much as Sehun does. The little burst of fireworks in her only come out when something absolutely makes her happy. Her secret hideout, her warehouse that is filled with glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceilings, vintage furniture on the second floor, and a wasteland of nothingness on the hardwood floor, makes her even happier.

 

Jongin often heard the story of this home of hers. When she was young, Soojung wanted a summer house, but not too far from home. It was weird, but her father owned the house that was supposed to be demolished a few days after her tenth birthday. She had one wish: to own this building. Her father lied to her about it getting destroyed, and forbid her to go in the general area. Until she was sixteen.  

 

She got to keep it then. She didn’t wish for a car, she wished to create her home. None of them knew about it until that day though. Soojung, like Ariel, was secretive in her adventures.

 

The insides of the house aren't worn down, but Soojung has a knack for interior designing and the insides are bland but homely. While there is no furniture in the living room, she likes it that way. She places the lemonades in the middle of the tiny little house and tells them all about what’s in her tiny escapade.

 

“The bathrooms are all working on both floors. The upstairs are filled with glow in the dark stars. You have to see the bedrooms!” she exclaims. Soojung rarely brightens up like that, but as everyone follows her up the white staircase, they see what she sees.

 

The dark ceiling is illuminated by the stars. There is a multitude of different kinds of stars, but they’re beautiful to look at. Jongin can’t see red or green, but he can see the neon blue stars and the yellow stars. The doors are all painted with chalk, and he sees Soojung in everything in that house.

 

“It’s a nice place,” Heeyeon comments, writing her name on the doors of the bathroom. Jongin has to agree. In three years, the girl really makes the house her own.

 

“Very Krystal-y,” Sehun adds. Krystal is Sehun’s nickname for Soojung when he’s too lazy to call her by her actual name. It's still weird because there's nothing easier about her nickname.

 

“Thanks, I’m really proud of it,” she answers, her eyes sparkling with delight. Three years in the making and yet she makes her dream home. “I’m really glad that my dad gave me the okay on this. I was surprised,” she adds. Her smile widens a little more once more. It brings fond memories to her. Ariel has a knack for dinglehoppers and thing-a-ma-bobs.

 

The doorbell rings and Soojung heads downstairs to see the pizza delivery person. It is a female. Soojung has also inherited Sooyeon’s girl on girl attraction, a bit, a tiny, tiny bit.

 

“I need to get my pizza delivered by you more often,” Soojung flirts. The girl at the door has dark hair like hers, but her legs are covered by short shorts, and her hair is quite wavy underneath her hat. Soojung has a thing for long legs.

 

“How sweet of you. I’m Yuji and I’m on the job,” the girl giggles. Soojung needs to waste even more time then. She loves pretty girls.

 

“Do you want to hang out sometimes? I’m pepperlonely,” Soojung laughs. Yuji laughs as well and they exchange numbers. (Jongin knows that she will tell them about their exchanges someday, just when they forget.)

 

They gather around in a diamond, throw the box right in the middle, Jongin grabs plates in the pantry that Soojung showed them earlier, and when he comes back, everyone grabs a bottle of lemonade. Sehun turns his music up on his iPod (not Disney music), and they all animatedly speak about his or her college days.

 

Heeyeon talks about her professors being oddities. Soojung talks about her advancement in interior designing. Sehun talks about the acapella groups. Jongin jokes around about the video game tournaments at his school.

 

“I can’t believe you didn’t share that you ended up in a multitude of threesomes!” Heeyeon exclaims when Soojung talks about her life. Sehun almost spits out his lemonade when she brings up his seventh grade crush being at her college, (Choi Jinri turns out to still be hot), Jongin tries to get Sehun to laugh at these jokes, and it feels as though everyone is alright. It seems as though they’re all remembering what makes them friends in the first place.

 

It’s the spiked lemonade and the pieces of a large pepperoni pizza. It’s the small moments where they’re all together as a gang. He feels like a part of the group. He feels like he belongs after so long being apart.

 

“Do you have any stories to tell?” Soojung asks Jongin. It’s a question that he’s not expecting because everyone else has amazing experiences, and he only has blonde hair as a change.

 

“I mean, I stayed in state compared to you guys, my stories aren’t as grand. I got by through my first year at college and I had a good time,” he states. It dampens the mood a bit because he’s not like Heeyeon who experienced weed for the first time, or like Sehun, who finds a love during a tiny break. He’s not like any of them. He’s stuck in the state, he’s seen some scary deaths and some dangerous situations. It's not as crazy as the others. It's just Jongin being the same Jongin.

 

He has friends that ditch him after knowing how he’s like. They don’t understand him, and he starts to waver in friendships because of it all. His friend of five years, Byun Baekhyun decides to block him out of his life when he tells him about his self-harm. He tells him to get over it, that going outside would be better. His girlfriend Taeyeon blocks him entirely, and being at a community college was so much harder because he didn’t know what to do.

 

He’s starting to lose his faith in relationships. He doesn't tell them the real story. It's the only story he has. He has to keep it.

 

“You don’t have to leave your hometown just to start over again,” Soojung responds in the silence. “We’re still going to be here for you. I know the year must have been tough, and there are some things we don’t want to talk about, but we’re always going to be your homies." Soojung exchanges a smile with him and Jongin smiles back. He really loves his friends in the corniest possible way.

 

“Besides, we haven’t shared everything, have we?” Heeyeon asks. The girl turns to Sehun and they exchange a look. Sehun doesn’t come up with spontaneous plans. He never does. He’s about to say something, but his phone starts to vibrate and it makes Sehun swallow.

 

haeryung:

4:16PM

I didn’t want to bring it up, but because of that post of yours…

haeryung:

4:18PM

I don’t care that you pit your friends against me, but I don’t want our mutual friends to have such doubts about me because of it. You never gave me what I wanted. I never could accept what you said to me. We had completely different ways to respond to this kind of thing. And yeah, I forgot about my promise because you were always telling me that it would be impossible to be more than friends.

 

I wanted reassurance that all of this was okay. That what I was doing was okay. But every time I saw you, every single, ing time, I was doing something wrong. I found someone else at the college. I found someone that was like me before I met you. I found someone who was depressed and lonely like myself. I forgot my promise to love you because you kept saying that it would never work out. Promises work if you support them not if you call them .

 

After…

 

 

Sehun stares blankly at his iPhone, he laughs, he laughs and puts it away. Jongin is close enough to Sehun to know that his plans aren’t spontaneous like he likes to put them out to be. There are reasons why Sehun, the brunette, threw a rock through his window that day.

 

Sehun likes danger, he likes adventures, he doesn’t like being put in a cage. But Sehun pretends he’s okay for the moment, and Jongin can see that he isn’t okay, but he’s trying to be.

 

“Is something wrong, Se-“

 

Police horns. Jongin may not be able to see the colors, but he can hear the blaring horns and it reminds him when his parents asked if he called the police again.

 

“, the Po-Po is here!” Heeyeon shouts. What happens next is kind of a blur because all Jongin remembers is the police kicking the door open and reminding them of their Miranda Rights.

 

They’re charged for stealing the car of the wealthy Choi Minho. There are two cars, one takes Jongin and Soojung, the other takes the brunette duo. The look on Sehun’s face lacks in color, in drama, in everything that he usually is. Heeyeon tries to comfort him with empty words, but they all know he really wants a hug, and he’s not sure what to do.

 

They’re all terrified of what’s going to happen next, but there are more important things than shivering under the eyes of the police. They have a friend that is on the verge of breaking and they have no idea what to do.

 

Jongin sees the address of Soojung’s summer house on the screen, the two cops in front chat, and Jongin and Soojung stare at each other, the seats are slippery and plastic. There is no way to open the doors. There is nothing to do except talk.

 

“Do you think he’ll be alright?” Soojung asks worriedly. Soojung is the queen of them, but as queen she also worries about her subjects. The most motherly of them all would always be Soojung.

 

It's not like Sehun to have a crash from a high so easily.

 

“I don’t know. Heeyeon knows more than we both do,” Jongin shrugs. The police crashes every party, but he has no idea how they would crush this one.

 

“I’m sure he’ll be okay…” she tries to reassure herself. They don't speak after that. The police have other calls. They know they don't have anything else to say.

 

Jongin is put in a cell with the other three. They have one phone call each, and while they wait their turns, Jongin looks at Sehun who just stares blankly at the ground. He’s not okay. He is not okay at all.

 

“How ed up am I?” Sehun asks finally.

 

“Incredibly,” Jongin answers.

 

Soojung hisses at the boy, but he knows he won’t take it the wrong way. He knows Sehun. He knows Sehun too well.

 

“Oh, you, Jongin. I did everything I could to make her happy. I did everything I could, but she kept denying and denying. I know it wasn’t that easy for her to accept me as I am, as I was, but damn it! I tried my damn best to block out my doubts. I tried my best to let her know that I was so ed up, and ing, what the hell did I do this time for her to leave me in the damn dust!?” Sehun shouts, alerting the police officer who watches them. He glares at the police officer. Jongin knows how to get him to spill.

 

Everyone reads the text that he reads. Everyone knows what happened to him. They all know his story. All of Facebook knows. Sehun isn't the type to lie about his life, he's the type to only read his story when he feels the absolute need to. Other than that, he doesn't let anyone else in about his misery.

 

“Why the hell would Haeryung say that? What allows her to even say that about me?! her. , , , her,” Sehun sobs all of a sudden. His rant isn’t a rant anymore like it was this morning. It’s an explosion of emotions that he can’t handle, and somewhere in it all, they all just hug him, hug his shaking body, and embrace him until they can hear his breathing slow down.

 

It's a scene from a movie. It's a scene from every stereotypical movie.

 

"This is not a ing High School Musical," Jongin groans.

 

"I would have been Gabriella."

 

Jongin smirks. Sehun almost grins, but the grin falters and he knows that Sehun is hiding. He can't do anything though. They pull him out. Time for the call. The only musical that has jail scenes is Chicago. But they aren’t in Chicago.

 

Jongin is called to make a phone call. He really doesn’t want to go, especially when Sehun, the man of the plan, is crying over something his ex sent him. There is only one person who could cheer him up.

 

There is only one person who knows what to do. Jongin is going to have to sell his soul to the devil, his brother.

 

“Kim Jonghyun here, what’s up?”

 

“I’m in jail. Can you bail me out?”

 

“What the ? How the hell did that happen?”

 

“May or may not have stolen a car.”

 

“There goes your goody-two shoes record, bro. Mom is gonna love me the most.”

 

“At least I didn’t get a C+ in Spanish.”

 

“Do you want to get out of jail or not?”

 

“Fine. Can you get the gang out too?”

 

“If you give me Heeyeon’s number.”

 

“Yeah, no. I can get you Sunyoung’s though.”

 

“She's okay, I mean I guess..."

 

"Okay, don't lie like that to me. You ing want her."

 

"Noooooooooo."

 

"Do you want me to tell mom about New -"

 

", I'm supposed to know all the blackmail and now you have this on me. You learn well, young grasshopper."

 

"Are you coming or not?"

 

"I'm only coming because you have proven yourself worthy of my skills in blackmail."

 

Jonghyun never disappoints.

 

Jongin comes back to the cell and Sehun clings onto him. Sehun is now okay from the outburst before. It's because Jongin brings up that his brother is coming. Jongin knows better though. He knows Oh Sehun.

 

Whose call gets there first will have their 11:11 wish come true. But Jongin only cares if Sehun is alright for whatever happens because he’s really clinging onto him. He’s grasping onto his shirt and pretending to be fine.

 

“It’ll be okay, Sehun. Everything will be alright. You deserve better,” he whispers. It’s the words Sehun needs. He calms down. His body stops shivering, and he lays his head on Heeyeon’s shoulder, who hums him a lullaby.

 

Sehun doesn’t come up with spontaneous plans. Sehun doesn't share unless it's necessary.

 

“I tried to commit suicide,” Sehun opens up. “I took too many pills when I was upset. I got in trouble, I went to the hospital and everyone who visited me were all strangers who didn’t know me for who I am. They told me I was good at dancing, that I was born to be a star. I didn’t know. I didn’t understand what was wrong. I didn’t know anything. I just tried to be happy. But everyone told me that it was outrageous to be happy that way. I had to be practical. I had to be “normal” by society means. I – “

 

Heeyeon hears the sobs and she hugs him on the cell bench. It’s not meant for four people. Sehun doesn’t come up with anything on the spot. He tells the world as it is. Everyone looks at each other. Jongin breaks the ice last.

 

“My friend from high school was going to the community college with me. I ended up self-harming. What happened next was that he ended up ignoring me. He started to ignore me and I apologized for what I did, but he just never talked to me. He blocked me and so did his girlfriend and it wasn’t fair. I couldn’t get over my sadness the same way he could. He called me stupid. That there was a line for my kind of sadness… Damn, every time I say I’m over this , it keeps popping up in my head and he’s probably ing happy while I’m still scarred. It hurts like a wisdom tooth being pulled out or Brutus stabbing Caesar. All of a sudden, you have no ing clue who is going to turn on you when you share your secrets to them. Stupid ."

 

They all stare at him in disbelief. Jongin doesn’t share this kind of experience with anyone. He’s not the one to share things. He isn’t the one to share his problems like that, but it happens. It's completely an accident, but he feels better. He feels a little at ease knowing that someone knows about it.

 

“Like I said before, we are the ride-or-die es. We will always be here for you, thick and thin. Especially when you pick a bad girlfriend,” Soojung jokes at the end. Their heads look up to see the redhead smiling at them from her spot against the wall.

 

“Don’t be worried that we won’t. We might be busy, and we might not respond as fast as we can, but we will. We will try our damn best to be there,” Heeyeon adds. The two girls look at each other with a knowing smile. “We could be corny and say that we always have your backs, but we’re in ing jail together. If we get the death sentence, at least we all get it.”

 

"Plus stupid get STDs too," Sehun adds wittingly.

 

The gang ends up laughing at that and they go back to the pizza part of the day, laughing and chatting aimlessly about anything or everything. Jail can't break their happiness.

 

“You are so ing lucky that Choi Minho owes me a damn favor!” Jongin hears a familiar voice shout. It makes Sehun so happy because Jonghyun is his favorite Kim. Jongin takes a lot of offense to that.

 

"Your brother is so ing loud," Heeyeon complains. It's obvious that this is the very first time she has met Kim Jonghyun, the real devil of them all. There is bound to be some juicy blackmail because of Minho.

 

"Minho's also really into Heeyeon so I guess he found his Cinderella or whatever,” Jonghyun explains, and that makes Heeyeon blush because they all know she’s kind of into him too. Well, kind of meaning that he's cute, and she's cute, and they would make cute babies or something.

 

“What did he do?” Soojung asks curiously.

 

“He wanted someone to hack into the college system and give him all A's instead of exposing that he really was just getting stoned every night,” Jonghyun shrugs.

 

"You're really the devil..." Soojung mutters. Jonghyun grins the biggest and gives her a wink. Sometimes, he thinks his brother is into Soojung. But then again, it's Jonghyun. He's into anyone with a beating heart and long hair. (That one night in Reno, he realized his wife had a .) He has silver hair and a voice of a god (according to his sources), he really shouldn’t spend more time blackmailing the rich kids. But then again, if he doesn't then there would be something wrong with his life. Jonghyun feeds off the drama.

 

“Anyways, Minho’s at the party too because he's a Choi. You idiots really know how to make a host happy. And because of your new level of bad-assery, Minho has dropped all charges and wants you all to go to his party."

 

It’s weird, it’s close to eleven and they’re not tired out by their ridiculous summer solstice adventure. But Sehun exclaims the loudest, screams at the top of his lungs, because he needs s’mores and more lemonade.

 

“Hakuna Ma!” Sehun screams as they all pile in Minho’s car one more time. He could have said Hakuna , but Jongin is awfully glad he doesn't.

 

(Jonghyun forgets to mention that Minho has seven other cars, and for some reason only wanted to know Heeyeon’s identity. The power of Heeyeon compels every ing one.)

 

Soojung turns the radio up so loud that Jongin is pretty sure that the neighborhood hates her. Heeyeon drives so fast that he’s surprised that they don’t get pulled over, and Sehun is singing to the same old k-pop songs. They’re all in their fancy clothes, laughing and smiling.

 

They park at the beach, and run to the fire that invites them. Everyone cheers when they see Soojung with an actual smile on her face and scream when Sehun scares the out of Sunyoung. Her dinosaur scream is a force to be reckoned with.

 

It’s as though nothing has changed. Their smiles are still wide and as though the police chase never happened. Sehun is vibrant and laughing once again. Heeyeon who is freezing her off, is approached by the blonde Minho. The smile on her face is wider than he expects.

 

Soojung is making s’mores and flirting the out of some new boy named Jackson or Sungjae. He’s not sure, but she smiles at him when he steals the s’mores out of her hands.

 

“You , Kim Jong-ick.”

 

“I love you too, Ariel!” he exclaims. His feet travel among the sand, giddy off what has happened today and his happiness is too high. He finds his real friends. Among the crowd of familiar faces and unfamiliar ones, he sees the two who have betrayed him. They stare at him and he stares at them, he wants to raise his hand and say hello, but Sehun pulls him towards the log that only the best dressed can sit on. They shake their head in mock disgust. He's much too classy to say hello to those broads.

 

“You don’t think we’d let you hover over there, would you?” Heeyeon gasps.

 

“We can’t allow him to contract AIDs and die a sad life,” Sehun laughs.

 

“We’ll egg their houses later or something,” Soojung adds.

 

Jongin laughs with the rest of them. He finds some real friends that will go to jail with him. The same ones that will probably end up stripping for money, or even make s’mores at five in the morning just for the hell of it.

 

It’s twelve thirty when he checks his phone again, and they are still making s’mores while everyone else is barbecuing. They all sit next to each other in their formalwear, looking strange for a beach party.

 

“So why did you come up with this?” Jongin asks specifically to Sehun, The Lion King of them all.

 

“I missed you guys. Why else?”

 

Sehun isn’t one for unplanned craziness, but they all have to agree this plan is his best one. There’s a loud amount of laughter, and the group only continues to roast marshmallows, exchange knowing glances and smile at all the same things. It's corny, but Jongin doesn't care.

 

“I think Timon and Pumba would be jealous of our friendship. We make them wail in sadness.”

 

“Shut up, Sehun!”

 

Only real friends would say that in unison