Fire and Ice

Chapter 2

PRRRRRT!!!

The sound of the whistle signaled the end of basketball practice. Man! I’m beat. It’s been a week since I’ve met my new homeroom teacher and it turns out that she’s a new teacher here at my school. A fresh grad straight from University, at least that’s what I heard from the other teacher. That reminds me, I’ve got to go to the faculty room to fetch some student profile. There’s this new student from a foreign country and as part of the Student Council it’s my job. Well not really, I was kind of singled out to do the job since I’m “popular” with the student body. Pfft! Yah right! I was bullied to do the job since I was the one with less responsibility at the SC office. Being sergeant at arms and people not really listening to you means you’re kind of useless.

I went in the faculty room and got the student file. It’s a girl. A cute one at that. Since its Friday, that means the transfer student will be here by Monday. Her name’s Choi SulLi by the way if you’re wondering. This week’s been a body sore for me. Basketball season’s just around the corner and coach’s been pushing us to our limits. I need my rest, pronto.

I was on my way home riding my bike; it still got some light on the horizon so I just went on a slow pace.

Today’s my birthday. I totally forgot. Haha. Mom’s going to kill me if I don’t get home by seven. I think she said something about heading straight home after practice. I better pick up speed since I don’t want to make her mad at me.

When I got to our front yard, I saw that the lights were off. That’s odd. Mom didn’t say anything about going out. I just used my own set of keys and opened the front door and turned on the lights.

“SURPRISE!” people shouted from our living room and that seriously almost gave me a heart attack. Talk about a surprise.

“Happy birthday Amber!” everybody shouted and they started singing Happy Birthday.

“Happy birthday honey,” my mom greeted me and gave me a big hug.

I didn’t expect my mom to give me a big birthday party like this. A simple meal with my family and friends would have been enough. But I didn’t say I didn’t like it. I actually have a big smile on me.

“Yoh sis! You’re finally a lady. Sweet eighteen. Haha. Don’t you think you should consider wearing more girly clothes rather than baggy boy clothes?” Oh great! My annoying brother, Minhyuk just broke my happy bubble.

“This is me, so deal with it hyung,” I just stuck my tongue out at him after my comment. Seriously, its not that he’s against my way of dressing, it’s just he’s been pairing me up with this friend of his, that I really don’t see other than an older brother. He’s so childish sometimes. He needs to grow up! I can’t believe he’s older than me.

“Come on Amber, you know I’m only messing around with you. Oh, by the way. You remember my buddy here, Minho?”  Oh, great, here we go again. Minho’s the guy my brother introduced me to a while back. He’s a nice guy, tall, smart, charming in his own way. He’s one of the popular senior guys along with my dorky brother.

“Hi there, Minho oppa. I hope you’re enjoying the party.” I gave him a bow and a small smile before glaring at my brother. He just chuckled at my actions.

“I’ll leave you two to get acquainted since your last meeting was cut short. But don’t keep my little sister to yourself Minho, she’s got other guests, too. Well, see yah. Mom needs me in the kitchen.” With that he just left which leaves me and Minho oppa in an awkward silence.

“Happy birthday Amber,” he finally said and handed me a box wrapped in a beautiful gift wrap.

“Uhm, thanks. You shouldn’t have bought a gift. Everybody here celebrating with me is already enough as a gift.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s not that expensive. Besides it’s not everyday a girl turns eighteen, right?” I don’t know why but I felt my face burn at what he said. Damn teenage hormones acting up.

“I got to go over at my friends. I’ll talk to you later Oppa. Thanks again for the gift.” I said while trying to hide my flushed face and rushed up to my buddy Taemin.

“Yoh Taemin! You’re here. You said you’ve got to hang with your cousin right now.” My buddy Taemin ditched on me after school, usually he’d wait for me so he can hang out with me after practice. Apparently he was part of the few people invited to my surprise birthday party.

“Sorry Amber. I’ve to make an excuse to ditch you so I can come here and surprise you.” I can’t believe he just said that with an eye smile. Gah! He’s my best buddy, but I seriously don’t like to continuously see his aegyo. I just can’t stay mad at him. “Oh, my cousin’s here, too. He’s Minhyuk hyung’s classmate. That’s him over there,” he pointed to the corner of the house where Minho oppa was busy looking at our framed pictures.,

“Who? Minho oppa? He’s your cousin?” I asked surprised about the new information.

“Yeah. You’re sometimes never around whenever I hang around with him during lunch or on weekends that’s why you never got to meet him.”

“Of course I know Minho oppa from school, but I never knew you two were related. Minhyuk hyung never mentioned that piece of information either.”

“Well, now you know. I saw you were talking to him earlier. What were you two talking about?”

“Oh, he just wished me a happy birthday and gave me a gift.” I answered him with half the truth of Minho oppa being here. I’m seriously going to kill my brother for this.

“Come on, let’s just enjoy the party my mom made for me.” I decided to just have fun while things still last. I still get the feeling that something’s about to happen and it’s not good. But I just pushed that thought at the back of my head and tried to enjoy my birthday.

Well, the party was a blast even though it was a small one. Everybody had fun and I was really thankful to my mom for planning this. After all the partying I had to help my mom clean up the mess at the living room. This day really had been happy one, tiring, but happy. I cleaned myself up before finally hitting the hay. Man! I’m sooo tired!