Chapter 1: back home

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𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐟 my 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐧. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐠𝐮𝐲. 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞. 𝐇𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐦. 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐤𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚ce. 𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫... 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐟 me - 𝐡𝐢𝐬 younger 𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐇𝐲𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐚!

Yep, that's me. Park Hyeona. The younger sister of Park Sunghoon. Well...not that much younger. A two years age gap, that's it!

Like that text above, I could actually introduce myself to any person who doesn't know me yet. Because that's the sad reality.

Everyone is just always interested in my older brother. It's not like girls or some boys never tried to get close to me, but that was always just on purpose to get close to him in the end. I'm not ugly! I mean, I hope so... But I'm used to standing one level below him. At least I was three years ago.

"Hyeona darling! Your suitcase is still standing next to the front door.". My mom shouted from downstairs. "The next entering person will fall over it.". With a sight, I got up from my bed. "Yes mom...".

"I know you just arrived here, but you can't just drop your stuff like that," she complained. "Didn't you learn anything during your three years in the US?"

"Sure I did. But I went to a normal high school and not a boarding school, so why would my bad habits be gone?", I grinned as I reached for an apple in the kitchen.

Loud, quick steps came from the direction of the stairs. "Mom? I'm gonna go now. I'll be back before dinner.", Sunghoon dropped his sports bag on the floor, to slip on his white sneakers. "Where are you going?", I asked my brother, chewing. "I thought you quit skating before I left?".

He gave me an confused gaze. "Are you dumb? You know I started training in a football team.".

Ah right. There was something. I kind of forgot about this one. "Can I come along? I'm bored," I asked him to escape my task of cleaning up the suitcase. But as expected, he refused. "Of course not. Go meet this Jungwon guy or someone if you're bored.".

Yang Jungwon. The only real live friend I've had since day one. Okay, maybe just since elementary school, but still... I'm always getting angry when my brother treated him like a nobody. When I talk about him, he acts like they've never seen before.

Sunghoon pulled out his smartphone and tapped on the screen. "Hee's here. Bye then.".

Wait a second, Hee?

My brother opened the door and greeted his friend with a bro hug. "Lee Heeseung?", I curiously pushed my body closer to the door to be able to peek outside. The two boys fell silent as they noticed me staring at them.

"Hyeona? You're back?", Heeseung seemed equally shocked as me. "I guess yeah. I arrived today. It's been 3 years...".

"Yeah, 3 years.", he repeated. "Crazy! But nice to see you.", he added quickly.

"Why the hell are you acting like you've never seen each other before.", Sunghoon said while closing the door. "I'm cringing so hard, man.".

Heeseung laughed. "What are you talking about? Am I not allowed to be friendly?".

"Not to her. She's a beast.", Sunghoon threw his bag into the trunk.

"Shut up, okay?", he laughed again. "I've known her since I know you, bro.".

When the door closed, I was still standing spellbound on the same spot, the apple in my left hand. What the hell was that? I never noticed that Heeseung was that handsome. And why on earth did my heart start beating like crazy right now after they left?

"Are you okay?", my mom noticed my frozen body and chuckled. "You're standing there for a minute now.". I snapped out of my thoughts. "Uhm yeah. I'm okay.". Quickly, I walked over to my suitcase to pull it up the stairs.

"Lee Heeseung has become an adult. He's good-looking...", my mom talked away while she poured herself a glass of water. I squinted my eyes. "You think so? I honestly don't think he changed that much.".

Okay, it was obviously a lie. I am a bad liar. "All of Sunghoon's friends are very good looking! Himself included.".

"Tell me something new. He was always the handsome child, mom.", I rolled my eyes as I was about to disappear into my room. But my mom yelled after me. "Ah right. You should check on Jungwon, he asked for you a couple of times.".

Fortunately, Jungwon is my immediate neighbor. When we were kids, we hung out a lot. Sleepovers. Playing hide and seek and so on. Ah...I really missed him during the time in America.

"Mom? I think I'll go over to his place first after all.", I called out to her as I hopped down the stairs. "Your suitcase!"

"Later! I promise!"

***

Two minutes later, I stood in front of Jungwon's front door, waiting for someone to open up. Of course, his dad was the one, as always. Jungwon would be much too lazy to get up and look who's ringing. "Hyeona?", his eyes widened in surprise. "Hey, You're back!". With a bright smile, he placed one arm around my shoulder and led me into the house.

"JUNGWON-AH! Hyeona is here!", he yelled upstairs. I heard a rumble and a thump before he finally walked down the stairs. I had at least assumed that my best friend had not changed much visually, but the otherwise black hair was now fiery red. Shocked, my mouth parted.

"Jungwonie? Damn, what happened to you?". Without hesitation, he rushed up to me and wrapped his arms around me. "Hello to you too.". "Uh sorry haha. Hello stupid.", I replied. "You're red now?". I tousled through his hair as we parted. "Looks good!". "And what happened to your shoulders? Did you start working out? You're bulkier than my dad," I laughed.

We both headed upstairs to his room. At least, nothing changed here. "You're almost as tall as me now. I've never noticed when we facetimed.", he threw himself onto his bed in a huff. "And you haven't grown at all," i laughed at him.

"But something else. Now that I'm back here and the vacations have just started, I promised myself something on the plane.".

He sat up again. "And what?"

"This year is supposed to be the best summer ever, okay? No lazy sitting around.".

I had to bring up this point again separately because Jungwon and being lazy? That's almost the same word.

"Okay, got it. What's on your mind?" he grinned.

I thought for a few seconds. "Do you know where my brother plays football?".

Jungwon was surprised by my strange question. "Yeah, sure. Why?". I grabbed his arm and pulled him off the bed, "Let's go.".

***

When we got off the bus and approached a large stadium with lighting, you could hear men shouting from afar.

In the past, I would never have thought of watching my brother doing any of his sports stuff. But after he didn't want to take me with him, this thought ticked me off even more.

Jungwon grinned in the meantime thoroughly to himself. "What's up sunny boy?", I pinched him.

"You still know Soyeon? The girl from our parallel class?", he asked me. "You mean the ballet dancer Soyeon?". Then I remembered something that Jungwon had told me years ago, and I stopped in my tracks. "The Soyeon you've had a crush on since kindergarten?"

"Ni-ki told me she broke up with her boyfriend yesterday."

"Jungwon you really are hopeless," I whined. "I know you, you would never go for a girl."

"No more than you would ever watch your brother play sports," he raised his eyebrows with a grin. But I quickly declined. "It's nothing, really! I'm just curious what he's up to right now..."

The two entered the spectator area of the sports field and stood behind the rail. It seemed as if the training was over, because the coach suddenly called all the boys together.

"WAIT.", I marveled. "All of Sunghoon's weird friends are playing here?". It only took me a moment to recognize at least Beomgyu and Jay from a distance.

"Define all friends. Sunghoon has hundreds of friends, remember?"

The team suddenly converged in the middle and shouted something unintelligible. That was the moment when I recognized Heeseung among the players. It looked like he was even the team captain.

The crowd suddenly dispersed and everyone walked toward me and Jungwon. Some took off their sweaty shirts and draped them over their shoulders.  Surprised, I noticed that the players had stored their bags behind us.

"HYEO! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE?", I heard my brother's voice resound the whole field, even though he was about 50 meters away from us. Of course I noticed that he was annoyed as fuck, but I couldn't care less.

"I told you to stay at home.". He threw his sweaty shirt at me and reached for his water bottle. "What about you?", he addressed Jungwon. "You brought her here?".

But he couldn't even defend himself, because not a second later the bunch of boys reached us.

"Hey match! You're finally dating Hyeona?", laughed Jay while passing Jungwon. "What the fuck. I'm not...", he protested.

"Hoon! You could have at least told us your sister is that hot!", shouted another. "Shut up, Jake!". Sunghoon sighed in annoyance. "Can't you just get lost?", he finally spoke to me. But I kind of ignored him, because my eyes were focused on something else. A few meters behind, Heeseung spoke to a girl behind the rail. She was sitting in the stands, playing with her phone, and didn't really seem to be listening to him.

"Who's that girl?", I whispered to Jungwon and nodded in their direction.

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