16th☀

"You two know each other?" Mijoo asked, looking from Younghui to Yejun repeatedly. She turned to Younghui this time and said, "You've never told me you know him, unnie."

Younghui avoided eye contact by turning to her side, looking away from everyone. "You didn't tell me he was coming, Kwon Mijoo."

"I don't even know you know him," Mijoo said, looking at her cousin with a confused face. When her cousin refused to say anything, she turned to Yejun this time. "Oppa, do you know her?"

I looked at Yejun as well. From his eyes, I could see something flickering there—regret. I started to make my own assumptions, but I decided it wasn't the best idea. It wasn't my life to interfere. They had their own stories they had to hide. It was best not to be too nosy. 

Yejun's lips slowly parted as he shakily said, "Younghui... I'm— I'm sorry. I'm sorry we had to meet like this again."

Younghui still wasn't looking at anyone. She found the ground more interesting than the majority of us that was standing around. "Forget it. Everyone, let's just get into the car and head on over to my mom's pension quietly, okay? I don't want to talk to you, Yejun. Please sit in the farthest back."

Yejun surprisingly didn't refuse and quickly climbed in the car first and took a seat in the last row. Mijoo whispered something to her cousin, probably something within the lines of, 'Let's talk later.'

Talk about an awkward encounter. This was not how I pictured our first day would start off as. But trips were like that. There was always going to be an unexpected event that will happen. After all, every trip wasn't perfect, no matter how much you planned for it. No matter how prepared you are, unexpected events will come eventually. 

The rest of us entered the mini van and sat in the back awkwardly. The atmosphere was as cold as ice. I didn't think it would be a good idea if I were to talk right at this very moment. 

The mini van had three rows at the back, excluding the driver's seat and passenger seat. The very last row was used to put our luggage bags and everything. The second last row was where Hansol, Yejun and I occupied. The first row was where Wonwoo, Mijoo and Myeong were sitting. 

Mijoo was the one who tried to make everything seem okay. Because that was her job. Rainbows and unicorns, remember? 

"Uncle! I just remembered I left a few CDs in your glove compartment. How about we play some music?" Mijoo suggested, leaning forward so that she was leaning against the front row seats. 

"Well, did you hear that, Seungkwan? Check the compartment," her uncle responded, his eyes still fixed on the road. 

"Okay," Seungkwan answered, opening the glove compartment. 

While Seungkwan was taking his time trying to find what CD to play, I was trying to get used to sitting next to Hansol at a very close space. There were no gaps left between us. It was basically thighs to thighs and shoulders to shoulders. 

I tried to breath in and out, calming myself because my insides were literally getting warmed up, leaving no space that wasn't warmed up. The feeling was overwhelming, but it made me want to smile. I held a hand up, pretending that I was about to sneeze but I was just covering up a smile. 

The mini van's speakers started playing a noise. It was muffling at first; it sounded like a working microphone stuffed inside someone's pants as they were doing laps around a field. Slowly, a voice started singing. They were shy, but they sang anyway. Their voice was soft and delicate, and though it was lacking confidence, they continued singing. 

"Yah!" Mijoo shouted out of nowhere, smacking the back of Seungkwan's head. Her voice was so loud we could barely hear the voice singing. "Take that out right now! Seungkwan!"

Seungkwan was snickering loudly as he shook his head. "No! I thought you loved singing, Mijoo? Why not let all your friends hear your voice?"

"Stop it right now!" Mijoo screamed as she continuously smack the shoulder of Seungkwan. "Stop before I murder you in your sleep?"

"You hear that, Dad? Mijoo wants to murder me in my sleep," Seungkwan told his dad, pointing at Mijoo while his eyes were fixed on his dad. 

Mijoo rolled her eyes. "Complaining to your dad? Not a grown-up move there, Seungkwan. You're also sixteen, not six."

The two continued their bickering and I was here, trying to tune out the two from my mind to listen to Mijoo's shy singing. She wasn't that confident, which resulted to her singing shakily. But if you minus that, you could hear the lovely voice of a girl who just wanted to sing. 

I had completely tuned out everyone from my mind that I didn't notice that people were calling my name continuously. Namely my best friends and Hansol. 

"Huh?" I asked, looking around. Everyone wore their own concerned face while they stared at me. "Woah, I'm not sick or anything. I was lost in my thoughts... or more like Mijoo's voice."

Mijoo looked away, embarrassed. But she didn't look away to stare at the floorboard of the car. She was actually giving a glare to Seungkwan. 

"We're here already," her uncle—or Mr. Boo—announced, cutting the engine. "Let's get down, kids."

"Okay," everyone answered, stepping down from the mini van. 

I had my backpack slung around my shoulder as I brought my hand up to cover my eyes. The sun was shinning brightly over us right now. I squinted my eyes and finally made up the looks of the three buildings—which Mijoo explained before. Her aunt's pension. In Jeju. We were here!

I couldn't help but let out an excited squeal. "I can't believe we're here!"

Hansol was the one standing nearest to me, who ended up chuckling after he heard me. "Are you that excited, Sarang?"

I felt shy all of a sudden and was able to calm down after he said something to me. Nodding shyly, I told him, "Yup, I've been excited ever since I heard that this trip was going to come true!"

Hansol had that pearly smile on his lips again. The one that I always forgot existed, though I've stared at it for a million times already. "Glad to come along with you on this very exciting trip. Although... what's with that guy, what was his name again? Yejun? Yeah, what's with him and that girl?"

I glanced back at where Hansol seemed to be pointing and saw how Yejun was trying to talk to Younghui, but failed to at least get a word from her since she seemed to be ignoring him to the max. 

"I don't know," I replied, still looking at the two. It looked pitiful, if anything. "It doesn't look good, though." 

Hansol was now standing next to me, turning me into a stiff rock in a blink of an eye. "Did you realize something?"

I held my breath. "What?"

"We always somehow get caught up into another couple's fight. Not exactly directly, but we're always the ones who watch them, for some odd reason," Hansol said, his voice having some kind of tone. 

I took the courage to look at his side-view, only to end up meeting his eyes. We held our gaze for a while before I stuttered out an answer, "True. Must be the bad luck of us recently ending our relationship?"

Hansol was the one who broke the eye contact between us, which disappointed me. "I forgot that I had a girlfriend before. What was her name... Oh, yeah, Autumn. It felt so long ago."

As much as I tried to hide it, my eyes were widening on their own. At least they weren't obvious or Hansol would notice me gawking at him with enlarged eyes. Hansol, who had lied to me about moving on from his ex, had just forgot her name for a second there. 

Should I be screaming in joy? This trip just go even more better. It couldn't get anymore better, could it? I was expecting a kiss, but that thought should be shoved back into the farthest part of my thoughts. That wasn't going to happen, obviously. 

Everyone grabbed their luggage bags out of the backseat of the mini van and began following the lead of Mijoo and her cousins. There was a woman standing in front of the middle building's porch, smiling as she looked at all of us approaching. 

"Welcome!" she greeted joyfully, giving Seungkwan and Younghui a quick hug. "So, these are the happy trip takers?"

"Yup," Mijoo answered for us, going over to the woman before she gave her a hug. "Good to see you, Aunt." 

"Good to see you too, Mijoo. You've grown lovelier," Mijoo's aunt complimented, smiling at her. "Okay, everyone. You guys must be hungry. Younghui will show the girls where their rooms are and Seungkwan will show the guys. I'll ring a bell when lunch is ready. Okay?" 

Wow. A bell. That was so British. I think I watched a few British shows when I was young. Sadly, I couldn't understand what was going on since they were in English and I could barely read the Korean subtitles back then. 

Younghui gave me a warm smile before she led us to our rooms. Or me. Mijoo seemed to know where everything was. This was practically her second home. 

Younghui took us up a flight of stairs. It mostly looked comfy and had more pastel colours. Then came the hallway that was about five steps away from each wall. There were a lot of comfy decorations hanging on the wall, which made me feel at home already. 

From the stairs, there was a hallway to our left and another one on our right. Our room seemed to be the one on the left, third door from the stairs. Right in front of the stairs and around seven steps from it were glass double doors that led to a very big veranda which overlooked the beach. 

Perfection. 

Younghui pushed the door open for us, revealing a very spacious room in front of us. There were two beds on each side of the room with closets in front of the bed. One of the bed seemed clean, but if you looked closer, it was slightly personalized. So were the designs inside the room. The wall next to the bed located on the right seemed to have pictures stuck on it. Looking closer, I noticed the pictures were selcas of Mijoo and I.

"Is this the room?" I asked Mijoo, looking around, still with awe. 

"Yup," Mijoo answered, pushing her one and only luggage bag nearer to her bed. She took a seat on it and let out a tired groan. "That flight was nice."

"Why? Because you were sleeping on Wonwoo's shoulder?" I teased. Since I was the last person to enter the room, I closed the door and walked over to my bed. There was a door nearby my bed and I learned from Younghui that it led to a small balcony. 

"What? No!" Mijoo answered, rolling her eyes. "I was not aware of sleeping on his shoulder, okay? If I had known, I would have moved my head elsewhere."

"Where else? Yejun oppa's shoulder?" I teased again, also sitting on my bed. We were currently facing each other whilst sitting on our bed. 

Mijoo looked at me and strongly shook her head. "How many guys do you ship me with, exactly? I also know that you ship me with Wonwoo."

Oops.

Mijoo rolled her eyes, looking annoyed but she could never be mad at me. I knew her. She always took things as a joke, unless it was serious. Her eyes moved towards Younghui, who was sitting next to her. "Unnie, what was that about?"

"What was what about?" Younghui asked in return. 

Mijoo gave her a knowing stare. "I know you know what I'm talking about."

Younghui gave her a blank stare. "No, I don't. What are we talking about?"

"Yejun oppa." At the mention of his name, the entire room turned silent. No one said a word until seconds later. "You and him seem to have a history. Care to share? I've never heard of the story before."

Younghui didn't reply. She looked like she was doing some kind of deep thinking. The way her eyebrows knitted together. "It's an old story. Kind of. It happened when we were young, so we didn't know any better."

Silence took over the entire room, thinking it was best for her to recollect all the old memories of hers. From the tone of her voice, anyone could guess that what she was about to tell us were memories shoved all the way to the back of her head, never to be heard ever again. 

Until today. 

Younghui continued, "We liked each other, basically. We used to go to the same school here in Jeju until he had to move to Seoul. I knew that it wouldn't last if we had a long distance relationship so I told him we should just forget it. He promised he'd come back and now that he's here..."

Mijoo saw her cousin's teary, wet eyes and immediately, she placed a hand on her lap and patted it.

"What are you going to do? Will you go back to him?" I stupidly asked. Maybe I shouldn't have. After all, there was the slight chance of Mijoo also liking him. 

Younghui smiled bitterly. "No. A story that has come to end shouldn't be continued. It's better that way. He and I had our chance, and we lost it because of everything else. Isn't that just a sign showing us we weren't meant to be?"

I nodded my head, understanding her words. I could see why these two were cousins. Once a story was over, they'd never go back to try again. They were great at moving forward, I could see that. "What about Yejun oppa, though? Does he still like you? He looked like he wanted to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk to him." Younghui shook her head and turned to look at Mijoo. "Sorry, Joo but I think I'll have to go to grandmother's house for these two weeks. I don't really want to see him."

Mijoo frowned but nodded understandably. "I get it. What's life if we don't see people we used to be involved with, am I right? Tell grandmother I said hi. Have fun there."

"I will," Younghui said, giving Mijoo a quick hug. Then, turning to me, she smiled and said, "I hope you'll enjoy your stay here, Sarang. I'll leave it to Mijoo and Seungkwan to make sure you have a pleasant stay."

I returned the smile and said, "I'm already having a pleasant time."

"Do some exploring," she suggested, opening the door. "I'll see you guys around, maybe. When he's not there. Have fun. Oh, and don't forget, Mom's making lunch downstairs."

"Sure," Mijoo replied, waving at her. I only did the same. 

"So..." I began after Younghui had left the room. "...what should we do now? I mean, your aunt might still be cooking and I feel energetic. Oh, let's not forget the fact that Yejun and Younghui had a past tog—"

"Let's not talk about other people's stories, Sarang," Mijoo advised, standing up from the bed. She opened the door to the balcony and I only followed her out there. "Like I said before: there's no way I'm going to fall in love. Not after that horrible story between Hwiyoung and I. Let's forget my love story and concentrate on yours."

The balcony wasn't very spacious like the veranda right in front of the stairs leading to the floor where our rooms were located—which was the first floor—but it was still pretty neat. We could see the beach from here and I could hear the way the waves splashed onto the sand, creating a soothing rhythm. 

"My love story?" As much as I hoped on not showing a reaction, my cheeks always never seemed to listen. I was already blushing at the thought of Hansol. "Someone should remind me why my best friend is so irresistible, and why there's a lot of boys lining up for her heart. She's obviously not going to accept them."

Mijoo laughed as she leaned against the glass pane. "You're exaggerating too much. There's no line of boys trying to win my heart there. And so what if there was? I obviously have my love right next to me right now."

I grinned back at her. "You got that right, Mijoo! No guys can approach you without going through me first."

Mijoo pinched my cheek and scrunched her nose—much like when Wonwoo scrunches his nose when he laughs. Adorable. "Right. So there's nothing to worry about."

At that very moment, the bell started ringing. Loudly, may I add. It could wake up the entire house. 

"Is it always like this?" I asked, covering my ears for a quick second. Though we weren't inside our room and the doors behind us were still closed, we could still hear the loud ringing bells. 

"What? The bells?" Mijoo clarified, also covering her ears. After a while, she added, "Not really. When Auntie has too many people to call, she uses the bell. Like right now."

I still covered my ears. "Should we go down now?" 

"I think we should," Mijoo replied, nodding her head to the closed double glass doors. "She won't stop until we're all downstairs."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go." We'd better leave before my ears would start to get damaged from the loud ringing bell. It started to get annoying so Mijoo and I picked up the pace. 

Once downstairs, we caught a sight of the feast of food in front of us. It was mostly seafood—figures, since we were in Jeju and all. It looked really appetizing and I couldn't hear the bell anymore, though it was still ringing. All I heard was the loud grumbling coming from my stomach. 

"Woah," I said, taking a seat. I would have already started eating if it weren't for my manners and Mijoo's aunt saying we should wait for the others first. Sometimes, I'm too nice for my own good. 

Mijoo was already starting to have her own mental breakdown. She stared at the food and when her aunt told her to wait, her eyebrows twitched. Without anyone else looking—with the exception of me, of course—she snatched a small piece of food and stuffed it into her mouth. When we met eyes, she gave me a warning look. I only smiled in return, telling her with my eyes that I would keep it a secret. 

See? Too nice. 

The others finally came down and took a seat around the table. Hansol ended up sitting to my right, which then made me feel conscious about my actions again. But there was still no stopping me from eating to my heart's contents. 

We finally could eat and Seungkwan was introducing each and every dish his mom made. Without giving much attention to what he was saying, I just grabbed whatever looked good and gobbled it down. 

It tasted like the sea. Fresh. Watery. Salty. Nothing beats the original taste of Jeju seafood. I could live here forever, if only I could. 

Hansol lightly shoulder bumped me, which made me turn my head to his direction. He gave me a smile. "Enjoying the food?"

Maybe I should have gave it a little thought before I turned my head to face him. Our faces weren't that far away, as I expected it to be. It made me blush. "Y-yes."

I should also learn to control my stuttering. I didn't want to be obvious that I liked him, when really, we were friends up until the point I fell for him. It would be very suspicious if I started acting like this around him. 

Falling in love was like going out to war. Either you were armed with weapons and was ready or you weren't. In my case, it just happened, which meant I wasn't ready, nor was I armed with weapons. However, isn't that what love was all about? It gave you some type of weapon at each step and eventually, you'll be ready. 

I secretly glanced at Hansol during our quiet lunch—which wasn't as quiet when Seungkwan was around. Looking at Hansol, I felt my heart getting excited. I wanted to tell the whole world my heart. I really think I'm in love. 

~Author's Notes~ 

Sorry it took so long for me to update this story! Please forgive authornim! I went on a three-days trip and ended up creating a new story all of a sudden, so this slightly got pushed away. Don't worry! I didn't forget about this, nor did I run out of ideas. I just didn't have enough time, hahaha :) 

Thank you for supporting this book! We're close to 2K views now :) 

I can't believe it guys! It's almost 2017 and school's going to start soon, which will obviously mean less updates T.T I'm trying to concentrate more on my studies in school just because I want to receive good results to go to a good college or university in the future. I don't have my future properly planned, but I want to make sure I have everything I need as of now :) 

Thank you for reading this chapter! I appreciate every one of you guys. You guys are my precious squishies! My adorable Kimichies! I wuv you, I wuv you <3 

That's it for this chapter! A long author's notes because I just missed talking to you guys <3