I wake up to the smell of pancakes, and feel myself begin to salivate. It had been so long since my parents had been home, that it felt like a brand new experience. I decide to shower first before going downstairs to eat, and I dress in comfortable home clothes before going to the kitchen.
Dad is already eating pancakes, and mum eats while she cooks.
“Morning!” I say cheerfully. They both reply just as cheerfully, and I grab a plate and some pancakes.
“So how was Australia?” I ask. I didn’t speak to my parents last night, since I slept immediately after Kai left.
“Didn’t get to go sight-seeing, because we were both in meetings the whole time! Unbelievable, right?” Dad grumbles.
“That isn’t true! We went on that walk to the beach, remember?” Mum says.
“Yeah, but we didn’t get to swim! You know, they put up signs that said “Crocodiles in the water. No swimming.” Australia is too dangerous!” I smile and listen to my parents tell stories about their trip, and when we had finished, I went up to my room to study.
We would be having a math test soon, and I’m excited to see how I’ll go. I’ve improved a lot, and the topic we have at the moment isn’t too hard. I turn off my phone so that I can study well, and not be distracted by Kai.
After lunch, I finish studying for the day, and turn my phone on. To my surprise, I had 10 new messages and 4 missed calls. It wasn’t a surprise that they were all from Kai. Sometimes, he gets too paranoid. Pretty much, all of his texts were asking if I wanted to hang out. I was about to reply, when the doorbell rings, and seconds later, my mum is yelling at me to go downstairs.
“Yeah?”
“It’s Kai, sweetie.”
“Oh!”
I walk to the door, and Kai grins at me.
“I texted and called, but no reply. So I came over to ask. Do you wanna go hang?”
“Sure. Why not?” I ask for permission to leave, grab my shoes and then go.
“You know,” Kai started, “You’ve never met my friends.”
“I saw them the first time I met you. But yeah, other than that, no.”
“Well, I thought, that today you would meet them! We’ve been dating for..what? 6 months? It’s long overdue.”
“Sounds good.” I bump him slightly, and he takes my hand and intertwines our fingers. We walk to the park, where a group of guys are playing soccer on the field. One of them looks over at us, and Kai waves at him. His hair was dyed the colors of the rainbow, which looked pretty good on him. He called the other 3 guys, and they all jog towards us.
They stand in front of us, and they all start to talk loudly.
“Hey, Kai, who’s that?”
“Isn’t she girl from the other school?”
“What girl?”
“Are you two dating?” At the last question, everyone fell silent. They all look at Kai, and I can’t help but look, too. I don’t know what to expect, but am pleasantly surprised that he is smiling.
“Yeah, we are. I’ve been meaning to introduce everyone, but never got around to it. So I’m doing it now. Everyone, this is TJ. My girlfriend. Teej, this is everyone.” They all look friendly, but my mind is still squealing over the fact that Kai introduced me as his girlfriend. I have to concentrate, though, so I can learn their names. The guy with the rainbow hair starts.
“I’m Sehun!”
Then the guy next to him who has prominent cheek bones says “I’m Jongdae slash Chen!”
Next is a dopey looking guy with wide eyes. “I’m Kyungsoo. But everyone calls me D.O.”
Next to D.O is a guy with a baby face. “And I’m Luhan.”
“How long have you two been going out?!” Chen says
“6 months.” At Kai’s reply, there was an uproar. Everyone seems bothered by the fact that Kai hadn’t told them, but only D.O looked serious.
“So she’s the reason you’re never at school at lunch!” Luhan exclaims – it looks as if a light bulb has gone off. Everyone looks at Kai with accusing eyes, and I feel the need to say something, so I do.
“It’s nice to meet you all.” I say. I feel exposed to their eyes, and position myself to be a little bit behind Kai. They seemed to realize that they were making me uncomfortable, because Chen suddenly says, “Let’s go back to our game!” And everyone cheers and leaves.
A few minutes after they go, Luhan comes back with D.O.
“Hey Kai, can you swap with D.O? He says he’s tired.”
“Tired? Already? Aya, no stamina!” Kai laughs. He looks at me, and says, “Will you be fine with D.O? Promise he won’t bite!”
“Yeah, of course. Go have fun!”
Kai gets up, and D.O falls on his stomach next to me.
“Never…again!” He groans. After a while, he sits up, and says, “Actually, I’m not tired. I needed an excuse to come talk to you.”
I was quite startled, and could only look at him.
“I need to talk to you about Kai. Meet me here tomorrow at 10. As his best friend, I have an obligation to tell you something.”
