•••
"Very, very handsome boys!" Eunseo's mother squeals like a teenage girl and Eunseo swore that was really the first time she had seen her mother act like that. The boys only laughed.
"Introduce yourselves, I need to know the names of my daughter's friends." She says excitedly. Eunseo mentally face palms herself.
(Skip the intro-2 many)
"So?" Eunseo's mother turns to her. "Which is your boyfriend?"
"No one!" Eunseo defended while the boys just chuckle.
"Aww, that's a pity. I like them already." Her mother says.
"Okay, that doesn't change anything," Eunseo answers, blinking repeatedly.
"Wait for your father," her mother says and she just nods. Her father came soon after and the noisy dining room suddenly became quiet. He took a seat at his usual seat and eyes all of the boys.
"Which one of you is my daughter's boyfriend?"
"Appa!" Eunseo shrieks while covering her blushing face. It hasn't been a day and she is already embarrassed because of her parents. Why can they not, not ask questions about her sad love life?
Her father just smiles and pats his daughter's shoulder. "I get it, I get it." He says.
"It's nice to meet you, boys." Almost all of them stood up and bowed to the elder with the exception of Doyoung who only bowed slightly in his seat.
"It's been a long time, Doyoung-ah." He says to Doyoung and the younger just grins.
"Alright then! Let's start eating. You must be starving." Eunseo's mother says and pulls her daughter to the kitchen. "Eunseo-ya, clean this up, please?" Being the filial daughter she is, she obeys her mother and washes the pan.
Just then, someone knocks on the door.
"I'll get it!" Eunseo yells from the kitchen and rushes to the door after taking off her gloves.
"Who is it?" Her father asks, taking a sip of his coffee.
"...Mingyu." Eunseo answers with a bitter tone when she steps back into the dining room with a tall boy following behind her.
"Good morning, Seonsaengnim!" He greets both her parents with a very loud voice. Eunseo clicks her tongue unsatisfied.
"Have you eaten?" Her mother asks him. He was about to shake his head when Eunseo steps on his foot. He lets out a small yelp and Eunseo's mother looks at him concerned. He shakes his head then turns to Eunseo's father.
Eunseo heads to the kitchen to take a glass of water and then stands beside her father.
"Seonsaengnim, can I have your daughter's hand in marriage?" Can you imagine how much of a mess happened in a few seconds? Doyoung's eyes almost bulged out of its sockets and the other boys had their jaws hanging. Jaehyun choked on his food and Eunseo coughed out her water at Mingyu's shirt, with her being a head shorter than he is.
Meanwhile, her parents seem unfazed by the sudden proposal. Mingyu looks at his now wet shirt then forces a smile at her.
"Son," Eunseo's father puts his hand on Mingyu's shoulder. "There are lots of girls for you. Why would you want her? She's not that pretty, averagely smart and she can barely cook."
"I can cook!" Eunseo defended herself.
"Plus she has a boyfriend," Doyoung blurts out of nowhere and all heads snap towards him. He smiles and points to the boy sitting across him.
"He's the boyfriend," And, Jaehyun chokes again for the second time, this time worse. Johnny had to pat his back harder.
Eunseo's mother squeals. "I knew it!"
Her father only looked at the poor young boy still coughing.
Eunseo looked at Doyoung and mouthed him a 'what the fuck' but he just shrugs. She sighs.
"No, he is not my boyfriend." She looks at her mother then to Doyoung to glare at him then to her father to assure him that Jaehyun wasn't her boyfriend. Lastly, she looks at Mingyu and hits his arm.
"And you!" She hits him again. "Out!" She pushes him to the door and he even had the tendency to actually wave at everyone before disappearing from their sight.
"You really ruined my mood. Leave!" She pushes him out of the door and shuts the door close.
When she gets into the dining room, the boys were all over the place. Doyoung still eating with Kun and Winwin who didn't care. Jaehyun had his head in his food. Ten looks confused and so are the rest.
"He was lying." Eunseo says, plopping down onto the seat beside her mother.
"We know," her parents answer in sync and she mentally face palms herself. "You shouldn't have played with him. Now, he thinks his prank works."
"Your friends believe it." Her father says, gesturing to the boys. She sighs softly.
"That was just a prank. Don't believe anything he says." She says.
The boys still look unconvinced.
Suddenly, someone knocks on the door again. Eunseo stomps her way to the door, ready to hit Mingyu again but it turns out to be someone else.
"Jisoo!" She exclaims.
"Oh, hello, Eunseo." He smiles at her. "Song Ssaem?" He asks, referring to her father. She points to the dining room and Jisoo invites himself in.
He carried a box and once her father sees him, he signals Jisoo to put the box down.
"Ssaem, I've finished doing the paperwork. All the stalls are listed down." He explains to her father.
The old man just nods. "Thank you,"
"I'll be going now then, good day, Song ssaem." He bows to her parents.
Eunseo put her hand on his shoulder.
"You're the Student Council President now, huh?" She asks and he smiles.
"Long time no see, Eunseo. You've gotten prettier." He looks at her hair. "You also cut your hair."
Eunseo's hand instantly covers her bangs. She cut her hair the first day she moved to Doyoung's house and it was the first time she has bangs.
"Thanks," she smiles shyly.
"I'll see you later. You have to come tomorrow." He says before leaving.
"What does he mean by tomorrow?" She turns to her father. "What's tomorrow?"
"School festival." Her father replies shortly. "You can join them tomorrow."
•••
"Where are you going?" Mingyu asks when he sees Eunseo and her minions of limitless members.
"Somewhere,"
"I'm coming," he says, rushing inside his house which was literally beside hers then back outside with a hoodie in his hand.
"I didn't say you could come,"
"Well, I'm inviting myself."
She groans while the boys behind her wonders who the tall boy is.
"This name is Mingyu. He's a friend."
"Hello!" The tall kid greets them.
"Are you sure he's just a friend?" Ten asks and she just nods.
With that, they all head downtown.
"Hey, I just realized." Mingyu stops and looks at her. "You've gotten prettier." She hits his arm in embarrassment.
"Shut up,"
"You cut your hair too." She immediately covers her bangs.
"Thanks, you idiot."
"Tsundere, much." He snickers.
"You know, that was a really bad prank." She says to Mingyu. "Is that all you've got?"
He scoffs. "I have much more. I was being considerate. I didn't knew you had friends coming." He answers, shrugging.
"But seriously, marriage?" She asks. "I mean, if you ask my parents that a few times, they'll surely accept you." She says.
Mingyu had a horrified look on his face. "Ew,"
"Marrying you will be a nightmare."
"I know," she agrees. "And hey, what are you doing for tomorrow?"
"The festival? Food stall, I guess."
She nods. "Why are you following us anyways?" She looks at him.
"Yoon Cheonsa's orders." He says then excuses himself to go where he is summoned.
"Who was that?"
"Your boyfriend?"
"He looks so close,"
"Did you two date?"
Questions bombarded Eunseo as soon as Mingyu left and she makes a face.
"He's Kim Mingyu, no, yes, no." She shakes her head. "We're just friends. He's a neighbor."
"I thought you said you had no friends." Taeyong says while she glares at him.
"Tae, that's rude."
"I don't have friends at school. I didn't say I had no friends at all." She defends herself.
"So, you have friends here?"
"Yes, I do."
She walks ahead and bows every time she passes by someone.
"Hello, "
"Hi,"
"Annyeonghaseyo, ahjusshi."
"Annyeonghaseyo, ahjumma."
"Do you like...know everyone here?" Johnny asks in awe since Eunseo has been greeting every person they meet.
"It's a small village." She answers.
They reached a restaurant.
"You guys hungry?" She asks.
"We just ate breakfast." Doyoung says.
"Yes," the rest agrees minus Doyoung.
"Great!" They entered the restaurant and Eunseo greets the old lady in the kitchen.
"Ahjumma, we'll have...um, 10 servings of ddeokbukki." She says, calculating in her head.
"Can we even finish that?" Hansol asks.
"Is that even enough?" Jaehyun looks concerned.
"We can order more, Jae." Taeil says to him and he just nods.
Suddenly, a girl shows up from the kitchen and was about to pass their table when she stops right in front of Eunseo.
"...Eunseo unni?" She utters. "Unni!" She pulls Eunseo into a tight hug.
"I missed you soooo much. It's been such a long time." Eunseo pats her head.
"Yes, it has."
"Unni, you've gotten prettier. You even cut your hair." Eunseo's hand automatically touched her bangs.
"Aish...you're the third person already." She mutters. "Do I look that weird?"
"No, you look pretty." The younger girl's eyes sparkled.
Eunseo laughs. "Okay, Sungyeon. I'll believe you." She nods.
"But unni, ever since you left, it's been hard for me! I have no tutor now." Sungyeon's mother comes to give their orders and while passing by her daughter, she hits her shoulder. Sungyeon yelps and pouts after.
"That's because you're lazy."
"I have to agree," Eunseo says, smiling.
"I hate you..." she utters.
"So, what are you doing tomorrow?" Sungyeon literally stood up while gasping loudly.
"Oh my god! I forgot. Nayoung unni called for me. Unni, I'll talk to you later or I'll die." She says very quickly as if rapping then dashes outside.
"Well, that was fast." She says then proceeds to drink her lemon iced tea.
Suddenly, the doors opened and two boys came in. Eunseo glances at the boys and chuckles.
"Ahjumma, can we order, how many people do we have, Jihoon?"
"Seven..eight?"
"Um, 10 servings for take-away." The boy with deep dimples says.
Eunseo stares at the two of them until the smaller one turns to her.
"Oh, it's Song Eunseo." He says and heads to her seat. "Long time, Song leader." She cringes at the nickname.
"Stop calling me that," she makes a face.
"Choi Seungcheol, come here." Seungcheol who was busy with his phone lifts his head and smiles, seeing Eunseo.
"If it isn't Song Eunseo," he says and sits down.
"When did you arrive?" Jihoon asks
"This morning," she replies.
"Yah...You've gone so long that you actually look prettier now." Seungcheol says and Eunseo almost threw her lemon iced tea to his face.
"Shut up," she pushes her bangs so that her forehead shows.
"Ah, this is the real Song Eunseo." Jihoon chuckles.
"What are you guys doing tomorrow?" She changes the topic.
"We have something special." Seungcheol answers.
"It must be bad then," she says.
"Jihoon's the one planning." Seungcheol continues.
"Oh, it must be good!" She claps excitedly.
"Don't you think you look down on me too much?" Seungcheol asks, feeling a bit offended.
"Eh," she shrugs.
"Oh! I almost forgot." Seungcheol says and brings out a blue varsity jacket from his backpack. "Here,"
He gives it to Eunseo. She stares at the jacket then to him.
"What's this?" She takes the jacket and examines it.
"Yours, I wanted to pass it to Mingyu but now that you're here, it's great. You have to wear it for the whole days you're staying here."
"What?!" She exclaims, looking shocked. "What kind of jacket is this?" She laughs bitterly. "I'm so embarrassed." She covers her face with the jacket.
"You better wear it. All of us are going to,"
"Lies,"
"Just wear it." Seungcheol says. "Song Leader."
Eunseo scrunches her face but wears the jacket anyways. "Ah...Song Leader." She mutters under her breath.
"What about you and Nayoung?"
Seungcheol suddenly freezes and Jihoon starts to laugh his ass off. He even hits Seungcheol's shoulder and his own lap. He offered his hand for a high five and Eunseo high fived him back.
"Let's go," Seungcheol says, standing up, looking everywhere except at her.
"Why?" She asks.
"It's really good to have you back. You're the only one who can make him this flustered." Jihoon says.
"They're on a break now," he continues.
"Jihoon!" Seungcheol yells.
"They've been in an on and off relationship." Jihoom says before standing up. "I'll see you later, Eunseo." He pays for the take away and leaves with Seungcheol.
"Wow, news." She says to herself.
'Everything's changed, huh?'
•••