Karma ━━ Jake Sim

𝟬𝟭⠀⠀Partners in Crime

"I hate you." Sujin, now drenched from the waist up, delivers a berating slap to the older boy's arm.

Heeseung plucks the can from her hand with a satisfied hum, "No you don't."

Sujin rolls her eyes, but doesn't disagree. Only watches him begin to recline on the sunlounger next to her, soaking through the fabric bit by bit.

"My mom's gonna be pissed about that when she comes home, you know."

He stops in his tracks, raising an inquisitive brow in her direction.

She breaks into a grin, "Knock yourself out."

Heeseung chuckles, knowing all too well of Sujin's lifelong vendetta against her mother. He kicks his legs up and dries his palms on the sides of the seat for added effect, making her burst into a fit of 3-cans-of-beer-fuelled giggles. He then reaches over to swipe Sujin's sunglasses from atop her head, resting them over his own eyes with a boyish grin and lying back to soak in the sun.

It's always been like this with Heeseung, Sujin reminisces gratefully, full of ease and some sort of mutual, unspoken understanding.

The pair first met on the fourth day of seventh grade - well, Sujin's seventh, and Heeseung's eighth - in the back row of Mr. Allen's notorious detention classroom. (Or, as everyone in their middle school liked to call it: the Sin Bin.) She laughs to herself as she recalls the memory; when their hands had begun to cramp up after the torturous amounts of lines they had to write in that tiny classroom.

Little Heeseung, ever-curious and bored out of his mind, had turned to the girl next to him with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"So, what are you in for?"

Little Sujin, full of wit and sardonic humor as always, tilted her notebook off the desk in reply - just enough so that the boy could read what she'd scrawled over the page twenty-fold.

I will not call Sofia Martinez a bitch. Even though she is one. Big-time.

Little Heeseung had to stifle a laugh. He then hunched back over his desk, hurriedly scribbling additions to his own lines for enough time to pique the girl's interest. She remembers the lopsided grin he wore as he brandished his work like it was yesterday.

I will not skip sixth period Math. It's not my fault Mrs. Wright has the entertainment factor of drying paint.

That was the moment Little Sujin knew she found her best friend. They'd both received an extra three days of detention, and the rest is history.

Present Sujin is pulled from her thoughts by an ever-dramatic remark from Present Heeseung.

"Jesus, you were right... This tastes like ass."

Despite his words and the expression of mild disgust decorating his features, he continues to take several more swigs from the can.

Sujin rolls her eyes. Though almost five years have passed since that fateful afternoon in the Sin Bin, she's still able to see the little boy in the back row no matter how much he's grown. She supposes that's what she appreciates most about their friendship - its constancy. As someone less-than-fond of change, the girl finds comfort in this fact. After all, it's the reason she'd begged her parents to let her stay in public school all through middle and high school, despite her mother's overwhelming attempts to enroll her into various stick-in-the-ass private schools over the years.

Ugh.

There's a certain dread that washes over Sujin at the thought of school. She's due to start twelfth grade in less than two weeks and, considering Heeseung had just graduated weeks earlier, the thought of having to brave the next year without him at her side leaves a sour feeling in the pit of her stomach.