Chapter 1
Oh wow, this is weird. I hear the car coming, but I’m paralyzed. How did Jinnie do this? What if the car comes before I get Barbie?
I ran and retrieved Barbie. I felt the dedication to my doll AND I felt the adrenaline rush. Two in one shot! I looked at the approaching car to see my handiwork. I kept looking. There was no approaching car. There wasn’t an approaching truck or a motorcycle or a bicycle or a scooter for that matter. I whirled around and there was my neighbor cutting his grass. The hum of the lawnmower was the car that was going to pummel Barbie. I glared at Dongwan.
“What?! What did I do?!” Dongwan stopped the lawnmower and threw his hands up in the air.
“You ruined the ritual!”
“Huh?” he looked at the Barbie and then back at me.
“You know, Barbie’s in the street, and then I have to go and save her when the car comes. I thought your lawnmower was the car!”
“Geez, I’m sorry that I got in between your playing hero to damsel in distress, Barbie,” he waved his arms over his head sarcastically and before I could say a word, he started up the lawnmower and turned away from me.
Sometimes I wish that I had dreams about Dongwan getting kidnapped and made to dress in a cheerleading outfit for his ransom photo. I think a bit of humiliation would be good for someone like him. Ugh. I’ve known him since I was seven and he’s been the same for his entire life. Not only is he clueless and innocent, when he does know what’s going on, he could be very sarcastic. I don’t appreciate his sarcasm.
I walked back indoors, holding my Barbie to my chest tightly. It’s ridiculous to be 17 and still attached to a childhood doll with ill body proportions.
My older brother, Hyesung, gestured to the newspaper article on the table, “You dreamt?”
“Perhaps.” Everyone I was close to knew I dreamt except for my parents. My parents knew I had strange dreams, but they didn’t know about its deadly accuracy.
Hyesung pointed at Barbie, “You were connecting, weren’t you? Was it successful?”
Frustrated, I shrugged, “I thought it did, but the car…it was actually Dongwan on his lawnmower.”
“He’s landscaping again? He spends so much time outdoors working on that land of his. Geez, why don’t you make him do something other than that?”
“Because he’s clueless.”
He chuckled. “Woo Hyuk and Jae Won are coming over in a bit. We’re going to the town with Tony, you want to come?”
I nodded. As an older brother, he always made sure I knew where he was and he knew where I was. How convenient was it when I finished high school a year early and he graduated college the same year? I took the year off so I could graduate with the rest of my friends and Hyesung took off the year because he wanted one last chance at fun before starting a career as a lawyer.
“I thought that I might go out with Hee Jun and Andy later today. They wanted to go clothes shopping and they claim that I’ve been pent up inside and need fun in my life.”
*Ding-Dong*
It was Woo Hyuk and Jae Won. They scampered in like fourteen year olds and gave me giant hugs, “Haneul! Haneul! You want to come with us?” Woo Hyuk and Jae Won were my twin cousins. When they were younger, everyone in the family thought they were identical twins. How could they not be? They had the same small sleepy eyes and feminine jaw. Then puberty hit and Jae Won is now a full head taller than Woo Hyuk. It seems they weren’t as identical as we thought they were.
I laughed, “Don’t worry bout it, I’m covered for today.”
“But you’re ALWAYS busy!” Jae Won whined.
“I know! You never have time to chill with us!” Woo Hyuk pulled on my shirt.
“I’m never busy when you guys are at school,” I winked.
“You want us to cut?” Jae Won’s eyes glittered with the thought.
“Ok, that’s enough out of you guys,” Hyesung ushered the twins out the door. “Have fun with Hee Jun and Andy.”
“Tell Tony I told him to stop wearing those socks.”
“He’ll kill me. You tell him yourself!”
I shoved them out the door and locked it. The house was empty again. All alone.
*CRASH*
Ok, maybe not alone. I already knew the source of the sound. I walked into my backyard, “Eric! Minwoo! What did you do?” The patio table was knocked over on its side.
“Yo yo! It ain’t my fault. We was freestyling and this kigga here thought it’d be tite to busta move on your table. Stupid crackhead was too fat and knocked it down,” Eric placed all the guilt on Minwoo.
“Nah, that ain’t how it is. Yo, Haneul, you know I isn’t bad like that,” Minwoo shook his wrist like he was rapping.
“I don’t care who did it, someone pick up this heavy piece of junk,” I groaned at the single-handed effort to straighten a fallen table.
“Aiite, I got this side, and Woo, you get the other side.”
Eric and Minwoo compiled all two members of the, what I call, “White T-Shirt” gang. They never went anywhere without a white t-shirt wrapped around their head. They thought it looked hardcore and all BA (badass), but it looked like they were wearing turbans. Somehow, they got it into their mind that they’ll be famous rappers one day. To me, they’ll never be anything more than ridiculous neighbors.
“You wanna hear mah rappin?” Minwoo tilted up his chin.
“It’s quite alright. I think I’m going to call some people and go out with them.”
“Yo, Haneul, we cool, right? Why ain’t we chilling like we used to be, yo?” Eric’s speaking skills were worse than any immigrant’s.
“It’s Hee Jun and Andy.”
“Aiites, no, we cool. I think we just gonna stay in you yard. I don’t wanna be caught in a store looking at fancy panties or whatever,” Minwoo reclined on top of the table.
“Just remember, my parents will flip the shit if you mess up our yard like you did last week.”
“Flip the shit, yo! You hear that Woo? Our lil chica said flip the shit. Dang yo, we good!”
I rolled my eyes. Eric and Minwoo have been coming to my backyard since I was ten. Originally, it was to play with Hyesung but since Hyesung’s long grown out of the rapping stage, they just come because they’re used to it. Although we didn’t move once we got awarded all that money, my parents did use some for nice landscaping and backyard expansion. I have the biggest yard in the entire neighborhood and naturally, people flocked there. Unfortunately, all my neighbors and cousins are males. I hear that I actually have female cousins overseas, but I’ve never met them. There’s a plus and a minus to this. I almost always have dates to everywhere, but I don’t have a single female friend.
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