Stan Kim Seokjin. That is all
Chapter Three: Pool Party
I sighed heavily, rolling onto my back as I scratched my cat between the ears. Mandu purred, licking his paws. "Mandu-yah." He just continued what he was doing, ignoring the fact that his mother was talking to him. I stopped scratching and instead poked his side. "Mandu-yah. It's boring. Do something."
It was hot, and I was bored. My parents were supposed to be home this weekend, but it was almost lunchtime and there was still no sign of them. If it got much later I'd be forced to walk to Yun-ji's place. And I didn't really want to do that. It was very hot out.
Sighing again, I rolled onto my stomach, grappling for the TV remote that was somewhere on the floor by my bed. Finally managing to grab it, I flicked the TV on, channel surfing. Jin-oppa would come give me a lift if I asked him, but... I couldn't pester him on his day off. He had enough to do. He wasn't responsible for me right now. Even if it was incredibly boring being at home without him belting out some ballad downstairs or nagging me about my homework.
It did get annoying sometimes that he pestered me so much about these things, especially as he was not my parent nor blood related to me in the slightest... but if he didn't do it, who would? Not my actual parents, that's for sure.
I finally settled on a show, some weird reality TV shtick with people answering questions and being given punishments for wrong answers. It was so hot that I was sweating, even though I was doing literally nothing. I groaned again. If Seokjin was here I could get him to take me for ice cream. Or make slushies out of the ice cubes in the freezer.
I sat up. Why couldn't I make slushies on my own? Like Oppa said, I'm 18, an adult. He might be an adultier adult but I can still do a lot of the things he can. It couldn't be that hard to blend up ice, right?
Wrong.
I stared at the smoking blender in horror as it gave a small sputter and finally gave up. What did I do wrong? All I did was put in some ice... not like I overloaded it, surely? I only used one tray of ice cubes...
I looked once again at the blender instructions, and grimaced. Okay, maybe I did put in a bit too much ice...
Quickly, I unplugged the blender and ran outside to toss the evidence in the recycling bin. Perhaps it was good that no one was here. No one to catch me in the act.
Smiling to myself in a somewhat pleased manner, I went back inside my house, deciding it was probably better to just wait out the remaining hours until I had to leave in my bedroom.
When the time finally drew near, I slung on a swimsuit under a short sundress, half expecting my oppa to appear just to scold me about how short the skirt was. He did not, and I left the house peacefully, out into the full onslaught of thee sweltering sunshine.
It was only around a mile, so a half hour walk, which I didn't really mind. I'd been lazing around pretty much all day, so really the exercise would do me good. I was so absorbed in the music I had blaring through my headphones that I didn't hear the muffled yelling... which meant that when the familiar, cheerful face was right in front of my I nearly jumped out of my skin.
"Ju eun-ah!" I yanked my earphones out as the bicycle skidded to a stop in front of me. I blinked, twice, then smiled.
"Ah, Taehyung-oppa. You nearly got me." I said, and he just laughed.
"Sorry, Ju-eunnie. I was calling you but you didn't answer. I decided to make an impact." I rolled my eyes at him, but couldn't help but laugh. Tae was from Daegu, but transferred to mine and Yun-ji's middle school halfway through second year. He'd been quiet to begin with, but soon made it pretty obvious that he was a cheery and doofy person, so made a lot of friends. "You heading to Yun-ji's too?"
I nodded. "My Mom was supposed to give me a lift but didn't make it back in time. So, here I am. My feet are my car."
He set both feet on the ground and stood, his bike steadied between his thighs as he saluted. "Lucky for you, Taehyungie taxi service is here!" He patted the rack over his rear wheel. "Hop on! You can ride with me."
I just squinted at him. "Is this a joke?"
He pouted slightly at me. "We used to do this back in middle school..."
"I was a lot smaller in middle school." I said, crossing my arms. I looked him up and down, gangly as he was. "And so were you."
"Nonsense! You're still small, and I haven't grown that much." It was true, he hadn't drown that much in height, but what had previously been long and lanky was now filling out as his body transitioned from boy to man. He was actually built similarly to Seokjin. "Come ooonnn, it'll be fun! There's a really steep hill up the road from here..."
I bit my lip. He had me. He gave a "yay!" as I swung my leg over to sit, holding onto the front of the rack and resting my feet on the wheel's spokes. And just like that, he was off.
Taehyung and I made idle chatter as we rode- well, with him peddling and me freeloading- occasionally falling silent as we just enjoyed the day. When the hill came up I very quickly transitioned from holding the rack to gripping onto the boy himself for dear life. He just laughed wildly, squealing a little bit, the pinnacle of manliness. I couldn't help laughing.
The journey was cut down from half an hour to a measly ten minutes thanks to "Taehyungie Taxi Service" and I knocked on my best friend's front door looking somewhat windswept. Yun-ji answered, seeming surprised to see us arrive together, and very quickly taking the opportunity to make it awkward by making a suggestive comment and wiggling her eyebrows. Taehyung and I were suddenly much more uncomfortable as we shuffled into the house, but it soon dissipated thanks to the chilled atmosphere and the tonnes of people that bombarded us once we arrived. I was really touched that my old classmates were so happy to see me- and Taehyung was, well, being Taehyung, and was quick to throw off his shirt and divebomb into the pool. He'd gotten pretty hot thanks to the cycling.
"You really not at all interested in him, Ju-eun? I bet he'd go out with you if you flirted a little." Yun-ji said with a smirk as she grabbed a glass out of her cupboard for me to get a drink. I smacked her.
"I told you, it's not like that. Why can't I ever hang out with a boy without you saying this?" I laughed, pouring myself some water. My eyes travelled to the gang of boys that were happily splashing adn shoving each other's heads under the water. "What would be the point in getting a boyfriend now, anyway? We'll all graduate soon and be off to different places."
"That's true..." my friend looked a little downcast. "I wish you were graduating with us, though. Why did you have to transfer?"
I just smiled, "We can still hang out after the ceremony. We'll all go to karaoke or something!" I patted her back, quickly chugging my water, "Now, I need to go attack some boys."
She laughed, "Don't hurt anyone!"
I was already sprinting out to the garden, ditching my dress, "No promises!" As I made it to the edge of the pool, I realised that, while divebombing the boys would be fun.... splashing the sunbathing girls with cold water would be hilarious. And so, I changed my trajectory, heading for the further end of the pool. Taking a running jump, I tucked my knees into my chest, and crashed into the refreshing water.
There was a lot of screaming and laughing when I resurfaced. Laughing from me and the other pool dwellers, who had seen it coming, and squealing from the sunbathing girls who were now dripping wet. I laughed so much I nearly choked on pool water.
"Ya, Oh Ju-eun!" Okay, maybe it wasn't just girls that were sunbathing.
Park Jimin stood at the edge of the pool, water dripping from his skin. His clothes were pretty wet from the waist down- evidently I hadn't created a big enough splash to get him from head to toe. I looked up at him innocently, swimming to the edge so I could keep myself above the water. "What's the matter, Jiminnie?"
"Don't Jiminnie me." He growled, sliding his sunglasses up to hold his hair out of his face, "You got my clothes wet!"
Quickly, I pulled myself out of the pool. Everyone was silent, probably wanting to watch this unfold. "I'm sorry, Jimin-oppa," I simpered, "I just wanted to cool you all down a bit... in fact, you still look a little hot!"
Before he could react, my innocent expression transformed into one of evil intent, and I shoved him full force into the pool. He surfaced, spluttering, caramel hair stuck flat to his forehead. I creased up, laughing, along with the others in the pool. He looked mad for a second, but then it lightened, and when someone yanked me up into the air I realised why.
"You're misbehaving, Ju-eunnie!" Taehyung scolded with a grin... promptly throwing me into the water. From what I gathered, Jimin's feeling of triumph hadn't lasted, because when I surfaced he was coughing again. I'd landed pretty close to him. Tae then took it upon himself to toss our gracious host into the pool and then leapt in right beside us.
As the afternoon wore on, Yun-ji's parents called us all to eat. Her dad was barbecuing various meats, and it smelled amazing. I was ravenous. After grabbing my food, I spotted Jimin on his sunbed, crosslegged, and squished up beside him. He shoulder-butted me but scooched over. For a while we were too busy devouring our meals to talk, only mumbling out the occasional complaint of dripping chlorine water onto our food.
"It's been way too long since we've seen you, Ju-eun." I looked up from my burger at the words, seeing that Jimin had finished his food. I smiled somewhat morosely.
"Sorry. Been studying and had a lot of practice matches. We have a tournament coming up and there are exams as well..." and if I fail any I won't be allowed to play Volleyball anymore. He nodded in understanding.
"I'm just saying, don't be a stranger." He grinned, and nudged him with my elbow.
"We'll all hang out again soon. You guys are gonna come see me play, right?" He scratched his chin, feigning confusion.
"Ah, when is that again..?" I hit him, and he laughed. "Joking! Joking. Of course we'll be there. Ju-eunnie unofficial cheer squad! And of course we gotta cheer on our own school's team too."
I laughed, folding my legs up on the chair. It was almost evening now, and it was taking me a little while to dry off. Jimin was the same. "Cheer for me if I end up playing Yun-ji's team, though."
His voice dropped to a whisper, "Of course." He gave me a wink. Both of us jerked as we received dual smacks to the head.
"Park Jimin I swear if you cheer for the opposing team at our school's match I will skin you alive." Yun-ji switched her glare to me, "And you! Stop coercing our students."
I just grinned at her, flashing a peace sign. She sat down on the sunbed beside ours and we swivelled to face her.
"People are gonna start going home soon. I wish people would stay longer but their parents are coming to get them." Yun-ji looked depressed, heaving a sigh. She gazed at me, hopeful, "But... my best friend wouldn't leave me, right...?"
I rose my hand up, palm out, in a "stop" signal. "Sorry, no can do. I already agreed to use the Taehyungie Taxi Service again." Aforementioned boy seemed to here me say his name, because his head poked up from in amongst a crowd of people to swivel and flash us a grin. He quickly ducked down again when Yun-ji flung a sandal in his direction.
"Kim Taehyung! Why are you stealing my best friend from me?!" He just laughed, Jimin and I both in stitches as Yun-ji huffed. She ran her fingers back through her short brunette hair. "I can't believe you're ditching me for that coconut head."
I just smiled, entertained by her sulking. "My parents will be expecting me back. I'd love to stay but I can't just randomly decide to stay out all night. They need at least a week notice, you know that."
"Your parents are so strict. They should at least be fine with you staying here by now..." I just shook my head.
It wasn't long before Taehyung said it was about time he had to leave, so I left with him. Jimin and a few others left with us, too, though eventually we had to part ways. Taehyung lived on the street adjacent to mine, so he dropped me off at my house and waved as I went inside. I felt a little crispy from the sun exposure, but it had been a good day.
Naturally, I wasn't expecting anyone to be in the house when I arrived. No doubt my parents would be late home, if they returned at all. I probably could have stayed out all night and gotten away with it, but it wasn't worth the risk if they did come home to find me absent.
I kicked off my sandals and threw my bag down on the sofa before heading upstairs to wash the chlorine from my body. It was late evening, now, and I was pretty tired from all the energy of the day.
Once I'd showered, I got ready for bed, checking my phone. I had a tonne of messages from friends- most of them from Jimin, who, thanks to today, had remembered that I exist and decided it'd be fun to spam my inbox- but none from my parents giving any indication of when they would be home. I sighed. Some things never change.
It hadn't always been like this. They'd been attentive, your typical annoyingly paranoid parents... but as I grew older they just kind of... stopped. The rules remained just as strict of course, but they gradually spent less and less time at home. I barely saw them at all, now.
Sighing again, I rolled into my bed, responding to my messages. As usual, before I could even finish typing, Jimin had sent another three messages. He typed so quickly, the socialite. I could never keep up with him.
Finally giving up on the conversations, I turned my face into my pillow, closing my eyes. My phone vibrated just as I was drifting into sleep, and I grumbled, cursing Jimin and Yun-ji and all the other people that were texting me nonstop.
But, when I saw who it was, I couldn't help but smile.
Mr Worldwide Handsome: Good night, Ju-eunnie! Hope you're not too lonely without this top class handsome guy around. Did you eat plenty of vegetables today? And drink lots of water! It's very hot! I'll make shaved ice when I come over next time! 😁
I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the contact name he had insisted on, but the message made me happy. My parents may not think about me, but at least someone did.
I sent a short reply, then turned off my phone and went to sleep.
- - -
I always go into these intending to write a short chapter, but it never happens. I need to stop getting carried away lmao
Anyways! Hope you enjoyed.
(Stan Kim Seokjin)